Riddles
by speaks
Summary: Disconnected one-shots. BB and Raven navigate the strange realm between friendship and love.
1. In Which Everyone Knows

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. . .

In Which Everyone Knows

. . .

Everyone knows.

Okay, in reality Raven is fairly certain that no one has the slightest inkling. Already struggling enough coming to terms with the situation on her own_ without_ the added anxieties and other unpleasant emotions which will come along with three extra meddling parties, she knows it's best if it stays between just the _two_ of them for now. It's for her sanity. (Which he already threatens enough by himself.)

And yet, despite all her efforts (and his non-efforts) to keep it quiet (_on the down low, _he loves to amend), despite her ability to physically feel what the others are feeling, she still worries that everyone knows.

"Nobody knows, Rae. Besides, why would you care if they did? Don't I meet your standards?"

In the glass of her handheld mirror she can see the source of all her worldly troubles shifting on her bed, assaulting her with the saddest face he can muster. His lip quivers and when he meets her gaze in the reflection shallow lines form under his eyes. But the actual emotions she feels radiating from him are far warmer. Emotions tend to surround people like suspended lakes—like personal snow globes. Right now Garfield's is a shake-up of contentment snowflakes. A little bit of sleepiness, undertoned with comfort. The dark quilt on her mattress all but consumes his long, lanky limbs in its folds, except his feet, which stick out the bottom. (_Your bed is too freaking small,_ he loves to whine.)

Raven catches a smile tugging at her mouth in the mirror and dutifully tucks it away again before resuming the steady brush strokes through her tangled hair.

"You know why," she says with the tired air of anyone who's said something a hundred times. "They'd get all worked up, they'd make it into this big thing, they'd never shut up about—"

"Yeah yeah, I know, I know." Suddenly he's there, slipping the mirror from her grasp and laying it on the polished wooden surface of the vanity. "They'd never shut up about it and your powers would go nuts, you'd probably never get a moments peace, blah blah blah..."

"My peace isn't important to you?" Her face is in his hands now, and though she tries to glare he squishes her cheeks and laughs.

"If your peace is so important then why the hell are you dating me?"

Her eyebrows plunge into battle mode and she opens her mouth to spit out the first heated retort she can think of. "I don't—"

"Wait!"

That snow globe of emotion that surrounds him heaves suddenly, morphing from a calm glassy surface into a whirlpool; Raven realizes the two of them are once again teetering from flirting back over that indiscernible fine line into arguing. She realizes he's treading water, from comfortable back to nervous. But then—and a fierce fluttery blush tears from her chest upward, emerging as if out from a silken cocoon—a look of manic confidence overtakes his face and he pushes forward. Recklessly drags her face up toward his own.

"Before you answer," he rushes, his words blending together as he churns them out in haste, lips brushing lightly against hers. Tantalizingly. Her hairbrush clatters on the wood, staccato, sharp, like the space between them. The whirlpool changes—rises upward into a cyclone. But even if she couldn't feel his emotions as loudly as if they were her own then she'd still see that cyclone churning deep in his eyes, the way they look past hers into _her_, unphased, unrelenting. Unstoppable. There's only one emotion in his snow globe now, and it's a wall of white. Desire. _"Let me remind you,"_ he finishes.

Their lips are pressed so close that when he speaks it's as if she's speaking in tandem. Unseen objects scatter across the surface of the vanity as she reaches back to steady herself against Garfield's insistent advance, and before she knows it papers are fluttering to the floor. His deep exhale becomes a guttural sound in the back of his throat that sets her heart racing.

She decides to let him remind her.

.

.

"Pardon my intrusion, but may I ask you a question, Raven?"

The fridge falls shut with a soft _squick_ and behind it is Starfire, waiting with bated breath. Raven raises one eyebrow, paused with an apple halfway to her mouth. Star takes the pause as a gilded invitation.

"Is there something amiss to which I could offer my services of rectifying? Anything troubling you? For... you have been acting _quite_ strange for an extended period of time and—" Starfire waits as Raven rips a small chunk out of the apple with her canines. Her hovering friend plows on, her concern far more obvious. "—we have begun to have the worries about you."

Raven takes a second bite out of the juicy fruit and mulls over her answer. She knows full well that the others are curious, and that they're concerned. About her. (About Beast Boy.) But it's her own business. (Their business.) Just when she's about to tell Starfire that, a second assailant appears from the side of the fridge.

"What Star _means_," Cyborg cuts in with that 'damage-control' tone of his, "is that we're here. You know," he goes on, one hand scratching at the bristles on his chin, "if there's anything wrong. We got you."

"You've been spending an awful lot of time alone, Raven."

She pulls the much-desired apple away from her mouth yet again, wondering if Eve also got this much shit for partaking.

"Morning, Robin. You too, huh?"

The accused rises from the couch still in his pajamas, coming into view for the first time. "We're just worried, that's all." When he joins Star and Cy by the fridge Raven phases through to the other side of the counter. This is beginning to feel like an ambush and she doesn't like it. Not one bit. Their worry is heady and thick and it smothers her, clouding her empathic senses. Robin, forever on the same page, immediately notices she's begun to plan her escape route and holds up his hands as if to calm a startled animal. "Don't take it the wrong way, okay? But this is unlike you. Ever since the Trigon thing ended you've been so much more open... But recently—"

Starfire lets out a pitiful whimper and clasps her hands beneath her chin. "Please do not shut yourself away, friend Raven! We wish to assist with whatever is ailing you!"

Cyborg shoots Raven a deadpan hardass look which says plainly_ we both know Star and Rob are heaping on the overkill, but we also know they ain't wrong—so spill_. Instead, Raven takes another bite and chews, slowly, taking her time. The other three grow increasingly uneasy as she puts off her answer.

Finally, she sighs. "Nothing is wrong. I've just... had a lot of stuff to do lately."

"Stuff to do?" Cyborg has one eyebrow quirked.

"Raven." She retreats further from the counter as Robin leans heavily onto the marble countertop. She can always feel the intensity of his gaze even through the veil of his mask, and it hacks away at her nerves. "I need to know. Is this about Bea—"

The metallic grating sound of the door to the common room sliding open causes them all to jump, and sets a quiet on the room like foam from a fire extinguisher. Raven's apple rolls across the floor and bumps against Beast Boy's bare foot, and before she can retrieve it with her powers he bends down and snatches it up.

After an unapologetic yawn he takes one massive bite out of it, sheering a solid quarter of the apple down to the core.

A wave of irritation laced with affection goes coursing from her cheeks down to her toes, and just like that her inner balance tilts dangerously askew. Energy splashes over her well and out into the world with the crack of a whip; the teacup on the table cracks down the center and the apple in Beast Boy's hands explodes into a pulpy mess.

"Hey, I was eating that!"

She glares at him, steaming, fists clenched, barely controlling her powers.

She hates the way her heart reacts to him. The way he picked up her apple and ate it as simply as though it were already his, it was so... familiar of him. So—_domestic. _Something aches in her chest. And then, how _stupid_ of him! It was so familiar! So _domestic!_ So wildly innappropriate, so not a thing a friend would do, so not a thing he can just do in front of their other friends without raising Cyborg's eyebrows right into the stratosphere. Amusement radiates off him as languidly as the summer sun, burning her just the same.

"Can you _not_ do that?" she hisses through her teeth.

"Let's see," he replies, flicking bits of apple pulp off his biceps, "I find an apple, I pick it up. I don't write the rules, Rae."

"Uh, guys..."

"Beast Boy, you are really pushing your luck right now."

"Friends...?"

"I wouldn't have to if you'd push it for me." He winks at her suggestively. The amusement is rolling off him in tidal waves.

Her eyes flare red and she starts toward him (to do god only knows what) when she's interrupted by a booming_ "YO!" _which returns her to her senses with a crash. She stops, hands still outstretched as if to strangle the idiot she loves. Starfire is worried. Cyborg exasperated. Robin has taken on the scowl of a testy schoolteacher.

"Whatever has been going on between you two, this has got to stop." Robin shoves his way in between them, grossly misinterpreting the electrifying tension that sparks between Raven and Beast Boy as something hostile.

Beast Boy's bright eyes dart toward Raven (they always make her think of afternoon light shining through leaves) and he backtracks when he sees her heart stop. "Rob, there's nothing going—"

But Robin jabs a finger in Beast Boy's direction, eyes narrowing. "Really, nothing? B, you've been antagonizing her almost twice as often as usual for the past couple months—" ("Which is honestly just impressive," Cyborg mutters from the other side of the kitchen counter) "—and you guys have been at each other's throats nonstop."

"And let us not forget the locking away in the respective bedrooms," Starfire puts in, forcing further space between her two friends as she descends down between the two of the from above to rest one hand on Robin's shoulder supportively, like a mother come to toss her two cents in on a lecture for their misbehaving kids. "This is the part which most concerns me."

"I don't get it." Everyone turns as one to look at Cy, who is the only one left by the fridge and is currently rifling through it, stacking various items in his bulky arms. "You guys had been getting on so well. And now this. I really thought you had started to..." he trails off, and accidentally drops a frozen waffle onto the tile as he shrugs. "I dunno. Become friends or something."

"Hey," Beast Boy protests weakly. He clutches at his wrinkly white t-shirt over the space where his heart is. "We _are_ friends."

"So this weirdness, this 'avoiding everyone' thing, this shutting yourselves in your rooms—that has nothing to do with all these crazy arguments you've been having?"

"Rae and I are good," Beast Boy insists, throwing on a very genuine bubbly grin. "And I've just been playing a lot of solo games recently, no biggie. It's not my fault they released a bunch of classics for the 3DS."

Everyone turns to Raven now, and she instantly wishes she is as good as pulling excuses out of her ass as he is. He knows it too; that he has her beat. His grin turns sly as he peers around their teammate's shoulders, waiting for her to give own excuse.

"I told you," Raven says. This is spiraling out of control. "Everything's fine. It's very simple and you guys are blowing it out of proportion." If they're doing that to something as simple as this she can't imagine what they'd say if they really knew, and so she's more determined than ever to keep discreet about it. "I've had stuff to do. That's all."

"Stuff to do." Cyborg sounds as skeptical as ever and for some reason it rubs her the wrong way. He pops his waffles in the toaster, scratching his bristles yet again.

"Yes."

She takes a step back from them all, letting her cloak fall about her body and cover her almost completely.

Starfire, still unclear on social cues even after all these years, is the one to innocently challenge her. "What manner of stuff?"

Raven blinks. Everyone's snow globes bristle with the probing fingers of curiosity, all except Beast Boy's, whose churns with amusement yet again (and something like pride).

"Oh," she says dumbly. She wasn't expecting that. "...Stuff," she repeats. She's always been a terrible liar. She can only ever hope to lie through selective omission. "Reading. Lots of studying. Meditating."

"And you could not engage in these activities in the common area, as you have done in the past?" Hurt and confusion flits around Starfire's head like trailing fireflies and guilt climbs its way into Raven's heart. She pushes it back down.

"Yeah Rae, couldn't you engage in those _activities_ in the common—" Beast Boy is quieted by one of Cyborg's half-frozen waffles, surrounded by her aura, colliding with his face.

"I could not," she says through clenched teeth. Beast Boy snickers. That little...

"Raven," Robin resumes carefully. His tone tiptoes and his emotions reek of caution. "What you're doing, I don't think it's healthy—"

"I'm not doing anything bad," she snaps, and for some reason Beast Boy snorts, a short bark of laughter. He quickly covers his mouth. Everyone ignores him.

"We don't think that," Robin amends hastily, "we just think it would be good for you to spend more time with us. With people."

"What about _him?" _Raven demands, irritated beyond belief, and points an accusing finger at Beast Boy, all stringy limbs and boxers and dumb wrinkly shirt, who's currently sneaking away from them into the kitchen. She throws him under the bus, knowing full well that he'd do them same to her. "How come you're not subjecting _him_ to this lecture?"

Cyborg throws his remaining waffle onto a plate and crosses to the waffle that's on the floor by Rob and Star's feet. "He's just addicted to a couple games, that's all. It's happened before." He brushes the waffle off and inspects it for germs with his mechanical eye. "But you..."

"I _what?" _She wheels away from Beast Boy who has now begun rummaging through a kitchen drawer and pulling out different markers to inspect them, testing them each by scribbling on the hem of his shirt. He has obviously checked out of the conversation and will not be rescuing her. She stares down her other three teammates, fury building. This has gone far enough. "I _what,_ Cyborg?"

Robin is the only one who doesn't quail at her seething tone. "I'll be the one to say it," he says with that team leader confidence of his. "It's just that there's obviously something else going on. You've always studied, you've always meditated. This is different_. You're_ different." His face goes soft, and a sudden wave of empathy rolls off him, sending her back another step, until her back is pressed against the counter. "Just_ tell_ us and we'll—"

"I _told_ you!" Her patience is finally gone. "It's nothing. No big deal. Leave it alone. I've just had _stuff to do!" _She can feel her energy well threatening to spill over again; the barstools on either side of her shake against the tile. "Why is that so hard to understand?" In her flustered state she doesn't realize that everyone has gone silent—that they're not staring at her, they're staring raptly at the space next to her. She punctuates her words, throwing them like daggers, driving the point home. _"Stuff. To. Do."_

She waits.

Her breathing finally slows. Heartbeat returns to a healthy pace.

No one says anything.

"Uhm, guys?"

Belatedly, she notices that their stunned expressions are not in fact focused on her at all. Tentatively she probes their emotions and gets only only thing, presiding over the room in balloons of static. Surprise. Curiosity consumes her, followed quickly with dread as she follows their line of sight, past her left shoulder, and she slowly wheels around.

There he is, the source of all her worldly troubles, capping a black sharpie and slapping it down on the table. He wears the slap-happiest grin she has ever seen. Her mouth falls into a startled little 'o' and someone finally speaks.

"Oh," Cyborg says. "Stuff to do."

Beast Boy leans on the counter and begins to pick at his teeth as if he has no idea he's the object of everyone's rapt attention, and Raven just stares at his shirt, where in fresh black marker, in terrible uneven handwriting, the word _"STUFF_" has been spelled out in all caps.

Then, all at once, Raven loses her shit.

"Gar, you _fucking moron!"_ And she launches herself across the counter at him, so beside herself she completely forgets she has powers at all, simply slapping him on every part of his body she can reach while he belts out a chorus of laughter. He's so pleased with himself he can't even bring himself to deflect her attacks. The joy pours out of him so freely that it's all she can do to hold into her anger. It's like trying to stay hot under the cascade of a waterfall.

("I am confused,") she can hear Starfire protesting somewhere in the background.

("We're all lost, Star.")

The two of them collapse to the floor, Raven now whacking him upside the head with the empty Eggo box. "I hope this was worth it you idiot!"

("I feel I have again missed a subtlety of English phrasing.")

("Uh... Wanna weigh in, Cyborg?")

"It was so worth it," he cackles. "I was trying to help you out, Rae! You were floundering! Ow, hey, not in the ribs!"

("I _ain't_ explaining to your girlfriend what_ "do_" means, Rob.)

("I do not understand. Beast Boy is the 'stuff' which Raven speaks of doing?")

"Guys, help?" He's almost unintelligible in his state of laughter and no one hears him anyway. Raven hits him again with the box for good measure.

("Yo, back up, did Raven call BB _Gar_ just now?")

("I think this dispute must be worked out on its own. Perhaps we should return later?")

"Yeah, return later," Beast Boy cackles, shoving Raven away with his enormous hand for moment, leaving her whacking helplessly at the air with her too-short arms. "Raven has stuff to do."

"Gar, I swear on _every earthly religion _I will make you regret this."

"Oh _no."_

But contrary to his words, his snow globe is all sparkling joy. No regret. That ache bubbles up into her chest again and she finds it suddenly impossible to be angry with him. Not when he's so genuine. Not when her body is so close to his that his snow globe intersects with hers completely; they are more a circle now than a venn diagram. If she's honest with herself, sometimes she can't tell which emotions are his and which are her own. It scares her... and yet it thrills her. Exhilaration lights up between them and suddenly her hands are on his chest.

"I'm_ so _scared," he lies, gracing her with that fangy impish grin. "Guys wait, don't leave me here—"

But they're already retreating from the common room with haste, and Raven hears Cyborg whisper to Robin with incredulity as they leave,_ "Okay, I'm not crazy, right? She _definitely_ called him Gar."_

"Hey, so..." he takes her hand, sitting up and pushing her off him with a sudden look of urgency in his eyes. "Don't freak out, but I think everyone knows about us."

She rolls her eyes and hits him with the Eggo box, but this time with the tiniest mote of affection.


	2. Game of Riddles

This is a completely unrelated one-shot.

. . .

Game of Riddles

. . .

Raven really didn't know why she persisted in reading in the shared space of the Tower, in the most commonly visited room. The room where she was most likely to be disturbed from her literary trance. The room least likely to offer her silence and peace.

On days when the world without was quiet (read: devoid of villainous activity) she would find herself yearning to soak up a story like she had done during her youth. When she picked up whatever book she felt like perusing she would always begin in her room. By the window, angling her pages toward the light. Naturally she would gravitate toward the bed, where she would click on the lamp as the sun sank lower and she realized she was squinting her eyes to see. Sometime around then on her 'reading days' there would come obnoxious pounding sounds on her door, accompanied by one or more of her friends with news of dinner or invitations to activities she had no interest in, which she would politely decline more often than not.

Except when the caller was Beast Boy, who accounted for an overwhelming seventy percent of the interruptions. Then she would answer with a stiff and decisive "NO" — although the actual words varied depending on his question. They all translated to no, which he never took for her final answer.

Sometime around her second year living in the tower, she discovered there was a way to subvert Beast Boy's unrelenting misunderstanding of her willful solitude. If she brought her reading outside her room, well then, there was nowhere for him to knock.

However, she quickly learned that simply being outside her room wouldn't shut him up.

_"What are you reading?"_

_"Wanna do something?"_

_"Are you still reading that same book?"_

_"What do you mean you're reading it AGAIN?"_

After he exhausted her small store of patience, she would retreat to her room, making sure he knew why.

But after that he would always come knocking, again, this time quietly and with an apology on his lips. It was infuriating that he could be so annoying and yet so easy to forgive.

And he'd be back the next day as well, knock knock knocking with unending vigor. God, where did he unearth all that boundless energy?

So after the daylight dimmed and she clicked her lamp on, she would read a bit more, stalling. She would glance out at the city and notice the lights had begun to shine out from the skyscrapers, and that she could see Venus hovering over the bay on her astral perch below the waxing moon. Then, with a sigh, she would click off the bedside lamp and migrate to the common room, where the light was far brighter, and pretend that lighting was the only thing that had brought her out here.

Everyone else left her alone while she read; Raven assumed it was because they valued their lives. Beast Boy must not have valued his own very much. She thought that mean thought to herself one night when he was pawing at her feet with the paws of a Doberman, begging her to stop reading and join them for movie night. At first she began to laugh but hastily caught herself. That wasn't funny. What an awful thing for her to think! She abruptly snapped her book shut, and announced she would be joining the team on the couch and requested they make room.

Everyone was pleased, but none so pleased as Beast Boy.

The first time he genuinely tried to get interested in what she was reading, she brushed him off.

The second time, she brushed him off.

The third time she snapped at him. "What do you care? It's not as if you're_ actually_ interested in it."

"Maybe I could _get_ interested if you would freakin' let me," he sulked.

So it went that when she clicked off her lamp and brought her book out into the vaulted room, down the sunken steps to her spot on the couch where the light was best, Beast Boy would be there, wondering what she was reading. She couldn't say with all honesty that she hated it; in truth, she was touched that he cared so relentlessly, enough to risk raising her ire, and knew it was only Beast Boy's strange own way of being a friend.

But she also couldn't say in honesty that it didn't bug the crap out of her.

Couldn't he just accept that while she had a place in her heart for friends, there was a different place for stories? That she needed these stories with the same intensity that she needed to eat and sleep and meditate? She valued his friendship and she would never phrase it this way to his face, but there was no video game, no movie, no joke, no anecdote, no anything he could possibly say that would be as valuable to her psyche as finishing this goddamn story.

.

.

"Dragons, huh?"

Raven pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "Must you read over my shoulder? You know I loathe that."

"I'm not," he shot back with a hint of pride. "I recognize the title. Game of Riddles. That book is about dragons."

Refusing to show her surprise (he just _knew_ he had impressed her because her eyebrow quirked!) she dug her nose back in the book. "So it is."

"You, uh... You like those kinds of books?" He wasn't giving up so quickly today. This was a rare opening and, by Jove, he was taking it.

Raven peered over the top of the book as he slid around the side of the couch to take a seat on the footrest facing her, barely outside her personal bubble. She gave him her best _What did I say about small talk when I'm reading_ look, which he blatantly ignored.

"You know, they made a video game based off that book." For some crazy reason this made him blush, and he found himself unable to meet her eyes. "It's one of those games I'm always trying to get you to play with me... I really think you'd like it, y'know."

"I hardly like when my favorite novels are butchered for the sake of entertainment."

"Butchered?" Beast Boy exclaimed, startling her back an inch as he leapt from his seat, arms waving frantically. "_Butchered?_ Dude, you would _not_ be saying that if you'd just play the game. Man, the part where the dragon tells his riddle when Jei is stuck in the cave? It took me seriously forever to figure out that the answer was a ki—"

"AH—nnng!" Raven went from annoyed and flapping her hands to wide eyed and terrified at light speed, and then just as quickly became embarrassed and slapped her hands over her mouth.

Beast Boy paused, halfway between concern and amusement. "Uhh.."

Raven groaned, slamming her book down on her lap (while careful to keep one hand tucked inside to mark her page). "I haven't figured out the answer yet!"

_Oh._ "I see. You don't want me to give it away."

She didn't take kindly to the mischievous grin spreading across his face. "If you give it away I will personally see to it that your tofu has a date with the garbage disposal. Every day for a year."

"Yikes, Rae," he scolded, as if she'd offended his honor, "you know I wouldn't do that."

"Wouldn't you?" She crossed one leg over the other in a manner he could almost (almost) call sassy. It was very hard to keep his eyes uplifted at her face when in his peripheral vision the entirety of her long silken legs came into view as her cloak fell to the side.

"No," he reiterated, actually a bit offended this time. "And take away the satisfaction of figuring it out? What am I, a monster?"

"So if you don't mind..." Raven raised her book between them again. The ornate shield illustrated below the title on the cover seemed to mock Beast Boy and all his efforts. "I'd really like to figure this riddle out, because I can't move on until I do. I've been stuck on this chapter for two days."

He was about to ask her why she wouldn't just _read the answer_, since it was, you know, written into the next chapter, but thankfully he stopped himself. It was obvious why. She wanted to figure it out herself. There was nothing more satisfying than figuring out a puzzle that was troubling you.

Speaking of puzzles...

"Hey, can—can I, uhm...ask you... something?"

All the confidence he'd been building up for the last couple weeks fizzled out with a snap, crackle, pop when Raven looked up at him with genuine curiosity. She blinked a few times, and he felt oddly exposed under the intensity of her gaze, naked, like she was reading his mind. Even though he knew she couldn't do that, his heart skipped a beat. She was putting in her bookmark (success!) and setting her book aside on the couch cushion. Beast Boy finally had Raven's full attention.

He was not as ready for her full attention as he thought.

His real question died in his throat and what came out instead was: "Have you heard this one before?"

Before she could object he rattled it off_. "The moonlight wrenched from Neptune's lair, of radiant sheen beyond compare."_ He'd had to play this one level (from a different game, one with less dragon and more wizard) a thousand times so he had effectively memorized every line from the cut-scene. She was about to interrupt him but he was determined to finish._ "A teardrop of cumulus, gentle form, keeper of memories of sea and storm."_

Interest sparkled in Raven's eyes. She thought for a moment before speaking. "No, I haven't. That's a good one. Give me a second to think on it." Beast Boy sat silent for an agonizing two minutes, until his fidgeting fledged into downright impatience. "Hold your horses," Raven berated. "I'm humoring you here, so the least you can do is have some patience. I didn't realize you were so interested in riddles anyway."

The inflection on her last statement raised like a question, so he smiled his wry smile and have her a half-answer. "Riddles are cool. They're kinda like jokes."

"Or... not at all like jokes."

Beast Boy seethed, puffing out his bottom lip. "Are you gonna answer or what?"

"It's a diamond."

"EHT, try again."

Only a small twitch betrayed her irritation. "A... star. The North Star?"

"Try harder. You want a hint?" he teased.

"No," she scoffed. "I know the answer. A keeper of memories—it's obviously some sort of container.. But Neptune implies relation to the sea. Maybe a vessel of some kind?" Idly she tapped her finger on her lip while she murmured to herself, her eyes scanning the distant ceiling like she'd forgotten Beast Boy was there. For some reason he grew more and more flustered the longer she pondered. "A teardrop. So it's tiny... But it holds memories? And it shines, like the moon..."

"As cute as this is," Beast Boy teased, ignoring the flash of danger in her eyes, "can I please give you a hint?"

"Fine." Raven threw her hands up, knocking the book askew and dislodging her bookmark. She didn't seem to notice at all. "Just give me a hint already. It's driving me nuts."

Fighting back a snicker, Beast Boy nodded eagerly. Then with the blink of an eye he shifted into one of the silliest things he'd ever shifted into. There he was, tiny and ridiculous on the gray footrest in the middle of the tower, a small green clam, dry and tightly closed and very out of place in the middle of their living room.

He had no ears or eyes in this form, so he never knew that Raven picked him up and turned her over in her palm to get a good look at him.

For all her feigned disinterest, she couldn't say his powers didn't fascinate her. For the life of her Raven couldn't imagine where his mind went to at times like these. She wondered if he knew what was going on in the world without. If he knew who she was—if he even knew who _he _was. At that thought a strange surge of sadness washed over her, alien and distant, like a seagull lost in the middle of the sea, and she had to quickly squash it with other weaker feelings.

The first to rear its head was innocent curiosity, so she went with that. She ran her finger over the curve of the clam's opening (she really couldn't bring herself to think of the clam as Beast Boy) and idly wondered if it had a pearl inside.

Raven grew suspicious of the way the calm shot open when her fingers touched it, and allowed herself to toy with the possibility that Beast Boy _was _somehow aware she was there, even without his ears and nose and eyes.

On the inside was a single shimmering pearl. Dark, more the color of crystallized ash than the white of a full moon, and imperfectly rounded—but the pearl caught the light of the lamp behind her and for a split second she saw her own reflection etched on the side, upside down and infinitely small. Angling the clam closer to the light, she examined the shape of her silhouette in the glistening surface, bringing it closer and closer to her face without realizing what she was doing.

Maybe that was where his memories were. Maybe that was where he recognized her. And then, only because she knew he couldn't see her, she allowed herself one fleeting smile before snapping the clam closed.

Wait a minute.

She threw the clam down on the footrest, where it bounced twice before twisting midair and becoming the boy who gave her so much trouble. "Pearl!" she exclaimed, pointing at him like a madman. "The answer is a pearl!"

Beast Boy radiated glee. He wasn't sure why but he felt a little fuzzy, as if Raven had dunked him in carbonated water while he'd been a mindless little clam. Without quite knowing what else to say, his hand migrated to the back of his neck.

Raven seemed to realize her outburst and quickly drew her cloak tightly to herself, as if covering her skin would also cover up the emotion she'd let slip through. She seemed just as lost for words as he was, because she awkwardly avoided his gaze and picked her book back up, bringing the leather binding and the illustration of a shield between them once more.

Beast Boy heaved a sigh of ultimate disappointment. It was obvious this conversation was now over.

But when he passed the arm of the couch as he took his leave, he felt Raven's fingers brush the side of his arm expectantly. He stopped dead in his tracks. She was still buried in her book, but now she was drumming her fingers nervously on the arm of the couch. He raptly watched them as she cleared her throat. Was she_ blushing?_

"Do you think you could..." She squeezed her eyes shut as she gathered the willpower to overcome her pride. "Could you give me a hint for the answer to the dragon's riddle too?" When Beast Boy didn't answer, and didn't move, she took it as a sign he didn't understand. "The one the dragon poses to Jei when he's trapped in the cave, after the rock slide. I... I just can't get it."

Beast Boy's brain was melting out through his feet. There had to be some way out of this one...

He barely refrained from making a terrified _eep_ noise when Raven craned her neck around to look up at him where he still stood frozen like a petrified log behind the couch.

"Oh, so now you don't want to help? When I swallow my pride and ask, you'd rather see me suf—"

"It's not that!" he interrupted. "It's just—" Frantically, he wondered if she'd notice if he just turned and sprinted from the room. "I don't—uh, remember it." Of course he remembered it. Who wouldn't remember one of the most climactic scenes of the game?

Raven, obviously not noticing his odd behavior, grew exasperated. "Okay, listen. I'll remind you. _Of no use to one, yet bliss to two. The small boy gets it for nothing; The young man has to lie for it; The old man has to buy it. The baby's right; The lover's privilege; The hypocrite's mask. To the young girl, faith; To the married woman, hope; To the old maid, charity._"

When she finished she closed her book with a huff and looked up at him expectantly.

After a few thick moments of silence it became clear Beast Boy wasn't answering.

"Are you going to give me a hint or should I go back to rereading that chapter now?"

"I..."

Her head was only a foot from his, her face tilted upward so innocently. Was she toying with him? Could it be that she already knew the answer? Was she just trying to fluster him? Could she really be that cruel?

Or maybe she really_ didn't _know. In which case his next action would come as a major surprise.

Maybe she was so focused on trying to figure out the answer that she didn't notice the distance between them closing. Didn't notice the light breeze of his breath brushing her cheekbone.

But she sure as hell noticed when the rest of the meager distance disappeared all at once. When his eyes fluttered shut. When he pressed his lips gently to hers, partially opened for her startled gasp. Warm fingertips brushed the side of her cheekbone, pushing up slowly into her hair, and she still hadn't decided whether to throw him out the window or kiss him back when he withdrew, whipping back like a snake, recoiling his hand like she'd burned him, before his palm had ever even reached her skin.

Beast Boy stared in shock, tense, waiting for something. Anything.

Suddenly— "Oh," she breathed. "I see."

"Rae..." Beast Boy paused with his hand half raised, torn between apologizing profusely or laughing it off as a joke or spilling all his guts to her.

Raven blinked hard a few times, like she was ridding an eyelash from her eye or something, and then suddenly grew stoic. "That's disappointing. I've heard better riddles."

Beast Boy balked. "WHA— hey!"

Pages shuffled as she idly fanned them between her fingers. "I guess it makes logical sense, but it's kinda morbid. What a pessimistic view on love."

The word "love" rattled around in his brain, failing to find any purchase. The answer was _kiss_—he hadn't said really said anything about love. (Emphasis on_ said_.) He felt like he'd been sucking in helium for the last minute. The lightheaded feeling wouldn't fade.

"I—uh.."

"And furthermore," Raven went on, fanning the edges of the pages with increased fervor, "it doesn't even make all that much sense, after all, now that I think about it."

"How so?" In his irritated bewilderment his voice cracked like it hadn't since puberty. He couldn't keep up with her!

Raven scoffed, tossing her answer out like it was the most obvious thing. "Well, it's just too specific. Not every old maid craves male attention. Not every young girl puts her faith in affection. Not every little boy is loved freely. And, moreover, you've never lied to me."

"Not completely true..." Beast Boy admitted. The sound of ruffling pages stopped. Her glare was barely more inquisitive than it was irate. "I mean I was_ kinda_ lying earlier when I said that I would never give you the answer..." Raven's lip twitched ever so slightly (the surefire sign she was trying not to show she found him funny) so he knew he'd scored a point. "And uh.. I wouldn't mind giving it away again, s-sometime," he added, stuttering over his words as his confidence wavered.

Something twinkled in Raven's eye—something dangerously poised between flattery and mischief—and she settled for stuttering over unattached syllables, and eventually shut up and tucked a strand of frazzled hair behind her ear.

Beast Boy almost laughed. He'd never seen her so flustered before. It was... It was something. It sent golden butterflies shooting around his chest, exploding against his rib cage like refracted light. Wow, this was a wonderful feeling.

"Y-yeah," she said finally. It sounded like something had caught in her throat. She swallowed thickly before going on, much more calm and collected. "I like nothing more than a good game of riddles."

"Good," Beast Boy snickered, "because I have almost as many riddles as I have jokes."

Raven's face fell into a testy thin-lipped state and Beast Boy snickered more. The tension between them lifted ever so slightly, the familiar harmless banter balancing the scales of their friendship ever so slightly. That wouldn't do. He'd really been liking the direction the scale was tipping. So, to make certain he left things on the right note, Beast Boy reached into his pocket as Raven turned her attention back to the climactic chapter of the novel.

"Hey, you can have this," he ventured.

He nudged her until she held out her hand. Into it he dropped the single pearl, the color of aurora borealis in a sea storm. Her mouth fell open in surprise as it rolled into the crook of her palm.

Before she could voice her hundred questions, he had morphed into an ocelot and slunk away through the door into the hall. Raven was left staring at the pearl in her hand. She had so many questions, but she had a feeling that Beast Boy was going to let her sit on them for awhile. That was okay. After all, she liked nothing more than a good game of riddles.

* * *

Couple of fun facts:

This story idea originally began on the notion that Beast Boy would find her reading a dragon book, and he would show her that he'd learned how to turn into a dragon, effectively getting her attention. I just like the idea of BB as a teeny tiny green dragon lmao. Anyway, the riddle idea came halfway through and it was much better.

Second, I'm aware that it takes a metric fuckton of years for a pearl to form in a clam. BB is not that old. I don't think he'd be able to biologically make one. So, little does Raven know, but he's actually been carrying that pearl around in his pocket for months, waiting for the opportunity to impress her. He never dreamed it would actually work out.


	3. In Which Someone Dies

Another unrelated one-shot. Enjoy.

P.S. The title is misleading ok fair warning lmao

. . .

In Which Someone Dies

. . .

Someone was about to die. That much was for sure. In Robin's young life there'd been countless moments when he was uncertain what the future held, when there were a thousand ways the path might turn, when the nearest bend in the river was shrouded and unclear. This was _not_ one of those moments. Someone _was_ about to die and, god have mercy on his soul, he was gonna make sure it wasn't him.

Even if it meant sacrificing Beast Boy.

So when the automated door to the common room hissed open again behind him, letting in the sound of idle chatter between Cyborg and Starfire, Robin wheeled around, waving his arms frantically in the most unmistakeable_ 'shut the hell up!' _kind of motion a guy could make without making any noise.

"What?" Cyborg twitched in mild amusement. "Cat got the bird's tongue?"

Robin cringed at the volume of Cyborg's voice, and made a desperate slashing motion across his neck. "SHH!" Did he have a death wish?

"Oh, are we playing an early morning game?" Starfire lifted off the ground in delight and clapped her hands together. "This is a most fun development!"

The clap of her hands echoed across the otherwise silent common room, the sound waves glancing off the steps and the rafters, and Robin actually stumbled forward to pry her hands apart. "It's not a game!" Robin hissed through his teeth. Couldn't they see what terrible danger they were all in? This was no time for games! Yet he felt a twinge of guilt as Starfire's face fell.

The guilt disappeared in an onslaught of panic as a new sound drifted across the room from the bottom of the sunken stairs. Leather rustling. A blanket shifting. Someone exhaling loudly.

Robin remembered exactly why he was trying to escape this room.

"We have to get out of here, guys—"

"Wha—why? Robin, what's wrong?"

_"Friends!" _Robin nearly jumped out of his shoes when Starfire screeched out of nowhere. He snapped his head back toward her and realized she'd finally seen them. "Robin and Cyborg, something _wonderful has happened!"_

"Starfire, shh!" It was Cyborg who silenced her this time, by clapping a hand over her mouth, effectively muffling her celebratory shrieking. He'd seen too, and he looked like he, for one, had the proper amount of concern. "What the hell, Rob?" he scream-whispered. "What do we do?"

"I don't know!" He was a team leader. This—he wasn't trained to deal with this. This was unprecedented.

"Should we just.. run? Before she wakes up?"

Starfire was still wriggling gleefully, as gleefully as she could while chained to Cyborg's side and unable to make any noise above a millionth of a decibal.

Robin gave a single frazzled shrug. "If _we're _the ones to wake them up, you know she's going to kill _us."_

Cyborg's face grew hard, and Robin knew he was coming to the same decision Robin came to the moment he walked into the common room and found Raven and Beast Boy on the couch, fast asleep under the same blanket, her head resting on his chest, his arm draped haphazardly around her waist. Robin had no idea how they'd accidentally done this to themselves, what bizarre set of happenstances had led to this surreal unlikely moment, but one thing was for sure. When Raven woke up to this, whatever this was, someone was going to pay. But... it didn't have to be_ them _who paid.

"Sorry BB," Cyborg muttered.

Robin rested one hand on his mechanized shoulder and nodded solemnly, as if to say,_ you made the right choice, buddy._

"You should not be sorry for Beast Boy!" In Cyborg's mourning for the imminent loss of his best friend, he'd accidentally slackened his grip on Star. Now she was bouncing across the room toward the pair slowly stirring on the couch. "On my planet this is an occasion that would be celebrated! Our friends have engaged in the making of lo—"

Both Robin and Cyborg tackled her to the floor as one as she reached the couch. It was a good thing Tamaranians had bodies of steel.

The rustling of cloth against leather quickened, and Robin tried to show his apology for behaving so roughly with Starfire with the nicest facial expression he could muster. However, it came off more panicked than anything.

Cyborg was less gentle with her feelings. "Star, no one has engaged in the making of anything! I love you girl but hush for a sec!"

Starfire continued struggling and babbling incomprehensibly under Cyborg's and Robin's hands as they dragged her with them toward the kitchen in a hasty and clumsy retreat. The rustling sounds on the couch had turned into a very deep yawn, and two lanky green arms could be seen stretching over the arm of the couch.

This was about to get messy.

Robin and Cyborg barely dove behind the counter with Starfire in tow before a far more feminine yawn came from the couch.

It was morbid curiosity that forced Robin and Cyborg to peek over the counter. Starfire held perfectly still between them, no longer trying to get free, with a twinkle of rapt awe in her eye, like she was witnessing the birth of a star. Robin and Cyborg had the solemn look of witnesses to a public execution.

They waited.

Raven yawned again.

Would she throw him out the window? Into the bay? Into another dimension?

Beyond the curve of the couch all they could see was the back of BB's head, and his arms hanging off the edge. He stretched them again, and then he said something that shocked everyone.

"Hey. Hey, Rae. Wake up." He gently shook her shoulder, which was just within view. "Sleep well?"

There was a muffled groaning noise in response.

"No, don't go back to sleep," he said suddenly. "Wakes wakey, eggs and bakey. It's breakfast time and everyone's gonna walk in soon and I really don't wanna explain this..."

"I'm tired."

"That's what we get for watching horror movies till the sun came up. Sorry, were you not clear on what an all-nighter marathon was?"

"I was aware," she droned, "I just don't think I was prepared."

"I guess you need more training."

"Don't you dare waggle your eyebrows like that at me this early in the morning."

"Hey now, don't hate me cause you ain't me."

"I'm— oh, I think I'm going to vomit."

"That's just rude. I'm not _that_ annoying."

"No—seriously. Too much licorice, and—popcorn. How do you_—live_ like that? I think I'm— Gar—"

The three eavesdroppers behind the counter snapped out of their trance as the still pair on the couch suddenly floundered to stand up.

"Oh no no no no—no way, you are not throwing up here if I can help it."

"No, don't—"

Beast Boy was now up, and the three in the kitchen had fallen backwards onto the tile into their haste to get out of the potential line of sight.

"Hang on, almost there!"

Beast Boy skidded to a stop around the corner of the countertop.

The three people on the floor stared up at him, and then at Raven, who was equally as flabbergasted as the person carrying her. They looked at each other, and then back at their three friends on the floor who were growing increasingly guilty-looking by the second. The uneasy stares were passed around for another half-moment, until suddenly Raven clasped her hand to her mouth and kicked her legs. Beast Boy rebooted and lurched toward the counter, dropping her to her feet just in time for her to throw up in the sink.

He reached around and grabbed at her falling strands of hair, pulling them away from her face and bunching them awkwardly behind her head. Beast Boy shot the other three a crytic glare as they rose to their feet and edged away. The glare said something like _'say anything at all and I will kill you.'_

His demeanor was entirely different when he turned back to Raven, trying to pull more hair away from her face. "Next time we won't eat all the licorice okay?"

"Shut uuuup," Raven groaned, squeezing her eyes shut as she ran the tap.

"Yeah okay," he hummed, apparently completely at ease with being told to shut up. "Someone wanna get her some water?"

The three steadily retreating Titans froze, taken aback at being addressed more directly. It really felt like they were intruding on an intimate moment.

"Yes," Starfire ventured, "I would be glad to."

"And you two," Beast Boy drawled, "you can wipe the smirks off your faces now. We've all gotten sick at one point or another from eating too much candy so I don't even want to hear it."

Cyborg laughed aloud, breaking the horrible tension. "B, that _ain't _why we're smirkin'!"

Beast Boy didn't seem to hear him. He was shutting off the tap and fishing a hand towel out of a drawer to pass to Raven.

"Th'nks," she mumbled through the fabric of the towel. She dropped it on the sink and slumped out of the kitchen, refusing to grace anyone with her gaze or acknowledge anyone else's existence. "I'll be in bed if anyone needs me." The door slid shut behind her with a hint of finality and a pregnant silence settled on the room. Everyone was staring at one person.

But that person was totally oblivious, and he himself was staring at the door.

"Dang, I hope she's okay... I feel kind of responsible, heh..." After a moment of indecisive fidgeting he finally noticed six eyes boring into him. "What?"

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Man, just go already! For the love of..."

Beast Boy nervously rubbed the side of his face. "Yeah, maybe we should check on her."

"Maybe," Cyborg egged, and began to unceremoniously shove him toward the door,_ "you_ should."

"Yes!" Starfire clamored her agreement and joined in the pushing of BB toward the door. "You should do the checking!"

Amusement sparked across Beast Boy's confused face. "What is it with you guys? I'm going, I'm going. Sheesh." The three of them watched him jog off down the hall to catch up with Raven at the end. He gave one sheepish glance over his shoulder before slipping his arm around her waist to carry some of her weight and balance her teetering steps.

Robin watched it all happen with detached curiosity, and considered that maybe he'd actually been the one to die after all, and had traveled to some crazy alternate dimension where up was down and black was white and Raven and Beast Boy were all but an indisputable item.

Because that was the only way this could seriously be—

A loud crash from the next floor up disrupted Robin's thoughts, and the sound of Raven shouting rang clearly through the layers of wood and insulation._ "What did I say about wiggling your eyebrows at me this early in the morning?"_

The profound silence that followed could mean only one thing.

"I guess she killed him after all," Robin murmured to Cyborg. And then, like nothing had happened at all, they went about making breakfast. Everything went back to normal in the kitchen.

But upstairs, up was down and black was white.


	4. The Talk

.

. . .

The Talk

. . .

A shadow fell across the title page of the twenty-sixth chapter of Raven's book. "The Final Hour, huh? Sounds pretty climactic. I hate to interrupt you here, but do you have a second?"

Raven put her hand across the inner seam so that the gentle breeze from the AC duct she was sitting directly beneath wouldn't blow the pages askew as she appraised Cyborg. He was leaning over the back of the couch with an eager sort of grin that made her sure she did not want any part of whatever conversation he had in mind. "This is the penultimate chapter of the book, Cyborg. Can it wait?"

Cyborg scratched his cheek on the metal sideㅡa subconscious tick she wasn't even sure he was aware of. It must have lingered from the days when he still had skin there. "Well, see, the thing is that I've been waiting for three days already. There's been a lot going on, and every time you're alone you're always reading that dang book. You've been reading for four straight hours today alone and I've been really patient but I _gotta _get this off my chest."

Toward the end, his tone shifted from light to almost serious, and Raven looked him over again, trying to discern what he was on about. After a moment of deliberation she closed her book. It was probably best to get it over with now.

"Great!" He vaulted over the couch, landing heavily next to her, bouncing her a full foot into the air. She glared at him, ruffled beyond belief, but he didn't even seem to notice. "Listen, I gotta tell ya, I think you and B are great together."

Raven pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "Is that what this is about? Please, can't we just pretend that nothing has changed?" Ever since Beast Boy had let slip that they'd been sort of seeing each other, the tower had been an absolute nightmare to live in. Today's reading session was the first moment of peace she'd had to herself since then, and she'd really, really needed it. "You've already had your fun at my expense."

Cyborg chuckled somewhat sheepishly, inching away from the dark cloud that was slowly enveloping Raven's body and the surrounding couch cushions. "Yeah, I know, I know, I'm sorry. It was just so unexpected! Look, I got it out of my system, okay? I'm not here to make fun of you. That's not what this is about."

Raven surveyed him through her hand with what she hoped was a Very Threatening Look. "So what is it about, then?"

The Look did not make him back down. If anything, he seemed to fortify himself before responding, leaning forward to match her stare for stare. "I don't know if you guys are serious or just messing around," (he held his hand up here to stay Raven's brewing response as she bristled) "but that's your business. I won't ask. But I am gonna give you this one warning, Raven."

"I don't want or need advice on the matter," Raven interrupted.

She appreciated the whole 'big brother' thing Cyborg liked to do for her, she really did, but when it came to this subject she wasn't sure she needed to hear his advice. She didn't want whatever warm, brotherly, overprotective lecture he was about to give about boysㅡor even worse, about Beast Boy specifically. Whatever warning he was about to give, she was convinced she already knew what it was. _Be careful with men, _she could hear plainly in his voice. _They're dangerous. _

_Be careful with Beast Boy. He's dangerous._

She wasn't sure she could take it if that's really what Cyborg so desperately wanted to tell her.

But Cyborg shook his head, his mouth pressing into a grim line. "It's not advice, Raven. It's a warning. I love you. You know that. But I love Beast Boy too. That kid is… he's my brother, Raven. If you hurt him..." His face softened for a second, and he stifled a laugh. "This is coming out like a threat. I'm not trying to threaten you. But _if you hurt him_, Raven, I swear to god…"

"Woah, ease up." Raven blinked in surprise, completely taken aback by the severity of his demeanor. "I'm not going to hurt him, Cyborg." Baffled, she waited for him to lean away, feeling oddly guilty. Guilty that she'd given him cause to even bring this up. And she had a little bit of whiplash from the u-turn the conversation had taken, if she was being honest.

Satisfied, Cyborg relaxed onto the couch, throwing his arms up on the back cushions, beaming at her like he'd known what her answer would be all along.

Still feeling guilty, and annoyed at that fact, Raven asked with a fair bit of sarcasm, "Am I to assume you gave Beast Boy this talk too?"

That threw Cyborg for a loop. He raised his eyebrow at her like she'd lost her mind. "Huh? No, of course not."

"What? How come you..."

Cyborg leaned forward again, scrutinizing her with his human eye in a way that made her feel naked. "Raven, Beast Boy wouldn't hurt you even if you were trying to kill him with a chainsaw." He gave her a wan smile. A knowing smile. "You know that, right?"

Raven looked away, that guilty feeling coming back full throttle. "Yeah," she admitted softly. "I know."

"You get what I'm saying here, right? I don't care what you guys do, just… don't hurt him. The guy's got a soft heart."

"I know."

Scrunching up his face in amusement, Cyborg poked her arm a few times. "Is that why you like him?"

"Aaand that's my cue." Leaving her book behind, she phased backward through the couch and retreated toward the doors that led out into the hall.

"What'd I say?" Cyborg laughed from the couch. "Come on, I'm sorry, I won't make fun! I promise!"

Raven paused with her hand over the control switch, contemplating for a moment before turning back to face her friend. "You don't need to worry," she said. "We're not…" She pushed her hair away from her face impatiently, turning the words over in her mind before saying them. She hadn't said it aloud yet. Not to herself, not to Beast Boy, not to anyone; yet when she finally said it she knew it was true. "We're not just messing around."

Cyborg's brief look of shock gave her the upper hand, so that when she said the next part he didn't even have time to think of a proper joke before she left him alone in the common room.

"And yes," she added, still drinking in his surprise with relish, "that's why I like him. So you can shut up about it already."

Suffice it to say that Cyborg shut up about it.

* * *

Something I've often seen in stories where BB and Rae hook up for the first time is Cyborg putting on his big brother pants and telling B he'll kill him if he hurts Raven. The idea behind that whole interaction has never seemed quite right to me. There was something off and out of character about it. Then I realized what was wrong with it, and so this is my personal take on how I think it would actually go down.

Take it or leave it.

Love ya, thanks for reading! xoxo


	5. Two for One

This story has been completely done for literally four months. I have no idea what took me so long to publish it. (Laziness. Whoops.) All it needed was some editing. Anyway, here it is. Stole the underwater bubble idea from this story to use for_ Birds in the Rain_, if you've read that. If you haven't read that... well... what are you even doing here... go read it... jk. But seriously lmao I put 4000x more effort into that story than any of these one shots. ;)

ANYWAY. ENJOY. This one's a real romp.

xoxo

. . .

Two for One

. . .

"Please Robin, you must be the immovable statue or my work will be for naught."

Robin made a low groaning noise that devolved into a laugh. "I'm trying my best here, Star."

"Only a few minutes more. I am almost finished!" she crowed, adding a few of the spiral sea shells a civilian kid had brought her around the base of the sand castle. Robin's bare feet stuck out comically through the drawbridge. The main body of the castle spanned around his middle and the turrets were beginning to obscure his view of the ocean as they steadily grew in size. As Starfire flew around the back side to add some finer detail on one of the turrets, Cyborg took the opportunity to snicker with impunity in Robin's direction.

"You done soon, tinman?" Robin growled at Cyborg, borrowing with glee from Beast Boy's vocabulary.

Cyborg only snickered more and turned down the gas on the portable grill. "You can't rush these things, Rob. It takes time and finesse to cook the perfect hotdog."

"You have remembered to bring the tofu dogs, correct?" Starfire called over her shoulder.

Cyborg gagged but nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Gross," he muttered as he flipped over Beast Boy's colorless food on the grill. The one in question was currently down in the water with a group of civilians. Every couple minutes a roar of cheers and laughter went up in the air, echoing up the beach toward the other Titans. "You'd think this was SeaWorld," Cyborg joked, shaking his head as a green orca breached the water a quarter-mile out to sea and a few dark specks that looked suspiciously like people fell splashing into the water below. "You gotta admit," Cyborg said to no one in particular, "the kid sure knows how to make the people love him. You know," he tacked on thoughtfully, "you could stand to take a page from his book, Raven."

Raven looked up on the other side of Robin's sand prison and tucked a bookmark in the collection of short stories she was chugging through. "Excuse me?"

Cyborg fidgeted, busying himself at the grill, but then answered anyway. "I mean, you could make yourself more accessible to people. That's why everyone loves B so much. Your powers would be just as entertaining as his if you let people see and experience them outside a battle setting. Besides, it could be fun!"

Raven brought her book unnecessarily close to her face, leaning back into the makeshift sand-chair she'd crafted with her powers two hours earlier and had not left since. "I'm not playing SeaWorld with a bunch of kids."

In the middle of making a flag out of a clam on the tallest turret, Starfire paused to size up Raven. "You have not left your reading crevice all day," she observed. "We ventured all the way to the other side of the bay to enjoy a day of summer fun together. Will you read all the while instead of playing?"

A warm breeze fluttered Raven's cloak around her legs and she flattened the fabric to her skin, drawing tighter in on herself with her book. "I like reading," she countered. "For me this is the epitome of summer fun."

Starfire shot upward, spinning in the air, leaving Robin to hastily re-erect one of the towers before she saw she'd knocked it over. "But Raven," she keened. "The weather is fine and the water is pleasant and the sun is glorious! We do not often see such days in the Jump City Bay. You do not wish to enjoy the splashing in the ocean? The warm sun on your skin?" Starfire made a point then of twirling around in the air so Raven could appreciate a full view of Starfire's polka dotted bikini, the stark white knit-design more than flattering on her bronze skin.

Raven bit her cheek and returned her eyes to her book. "I'm fine, thanks."

Starfire crossed her arms. "Friend, I must insist you partake in at least one summer ritual. Even Robin is joining, by assisting me in the building of traditional beach sand armaments."

Raven quelled the urge to throw a barrier between herself and Starfire. "For the last time: no."

Starfire's whole body drooped, and she seemed to melt from the air onto the beach next to Raven's sand chair. "Why have you even worn the bathing attire I purchased for your birthday if you are going to cover it with your cloak and never do the enjoying of it in the water?" There was no reasonable answer Raven could rattle off quickly enough, and Starfire provided her own before Raven could think of something. Her eyes grew wide and twinkly. "Is it that you are embarrassed? You are victim to the consciousness of self?"

At that, Raven's book snapped shut. "I'm not self conscious."

There was no indication Starfire had heard her. "In the Cosmopolitan magazine I have read this is a common difficulty for women of Earth, especially on beachly occasions. Please, there is no need for you to feel this way." The statement was punctuated by a tender hand on Raven's shoulder. "You are radiant, Raven!"

Raven pinched the bridge of her nose. "That's not why Iㅡ"

Starfire jumped to her feet, flinging sand in every direction, and Raven squeezed her eyes as sand flecks rained. "My father always said the surest cure to a phobia is by complete and immediate submersion!"

Wondering what good could possibly come of that proclamation, Raven squinted her stinging eyes toward the sun, struggling to stand. She felt Starfire's hands on her shoulders again, but before she'd gained her full footing there was a gust of wind all around her and she was naked.

Star threw the cloak away grandly and cried, "Tada!"

Okay, Raven was certainly not naked, per se, but she might as well have been. Her pale stomach probably hadn't seen sunlight in years. The black bikini Starfire had picked out for her was about as modest as a bikini could get, but it was still that. A bikini. Raven fidgeted in the sand, her mind completely white with panic. There was no emotion, not yet. Just blind physical panic.

It was not the bikini she'd been hiding with her cloak.

Starfire was still twirling, having not actually looked at Raven yet despite repeated sentiments of "Look friends, see how stunning Raven is in her water costume?" in a dozen variations. Finally, when she could pry no answer from the boys, she ceased her prancing to flash dangerous green eyes at them. "Does she not drop you dead with the gorgeous?"

But Cyborg and Robin did not seem to even realize Starfire was still talking. They were staring, gaping, open-mouthed at Raven. And no, not in the drooling, teen-movie, she's-so-hot kind of way, but in the what in god's name are my eyes even seeing kind of way. Star tilted her head comically, and followed their gaze back to look at the object of confusionㅡRaven herselfㅡwho was fidgeting in the sand and calculating how much energy it would require to open a portal from here to the surface of the moon. Raven didn't even bother trying to cover it up because Robin and Cyborg had zeroed in on it with light speed, so when Starfire turned she saw it too and made a dainty gasping sound, slapping her hand to her mouth.

It was at this mind-numbingly awkward moment that Beast Boy came trotting up the sand as a little scottish terrier, barking all the way before changing back to his human form to brush the sand off his half-sleeve wetsuit. "How long on the hot dogs, Cy?" he wondered, and chanced a peek under the grill cover.

All Cyborg could manage was a incredulous sidelong glance at Beast Boy, who then snorted; Cy was looking at him like he'd sprouted wings out of his eyes.

"What's up with you guys?" Beast Boy laughed. "Why's everyone standing around like someone died?"

"Um…" That was all Starfire could muster, and in lieu of finishing the statement she stepped aside to reveal Raven.

Beast Boy's eyes almost bugged out of his head at the sight of so much of Raven's pale marble skin. "Oi, Rae, you finally let Star play dress up! Fuck yeah, haha! Lookin' good!" He beamed and gave her two enthusiastic thumbs up, then pointed both thumbs toward the sea. "So does this mean you wanna go swimming now orㅡ" He trailed off as it finally hit him why everyone was acting weird. It wasn't the bikini. At all.

Raven met his eyes, begging wordlessly for him to say something, anything at this point, anything to relieve her of the responsibility of breaking this silence. Really it was a testament to Beast Boy's character that it had taken him longer to see it than everyone else, but now that he did, boy did he stare, and more blatantly and unapologetically and slack jawed than the others combined. And for good reason. Because there on Raven's chest, in full view in the open v-neck of her swimsuit, just off the left side of her sternum, cresting onto the inside edge of her breast, lay a fresh tattoo of a little green paw print.

The silence mounted, growing more tense and more palpable until Beast Boy shattered it by clambering with inelegance over Starfire's sand castle, burying Robin in its remains as he advanced on Raven.

"What the hell is that?" he finally managed.

Raven bristled. Behind her the book flipped open; whether a breeze or her powers blew its pages was anyone's guess. She crossed her arms defiantly. Beast Boy knew what it wasㅡeveryone knew what it was. She would not deign to answer the question.

A gleeful grin broke over his face and he poked at her chest. "You're secretly in love with me. That's what this is, right?"

That was all she could take. Positively snarling, Raven covered the insufferable tattoo with her hand and dug the sand out from under him with her powers, sending him crashing backward onto the remains of the sand castle, further burying Robin. She wheeled around to retreat from the beach with haste but Beast Boy grabbed her arm; she realized he was laughing.

"Wait," he pleaded, "I'm kidding, Rae, I'm kidding! Don't run off, come'ere for a second." With that he began pulling her down the beach toward the waves.

Their friends at last found their voices. "Return please," Starfire wailed after them. "I am full of confusion!" At the same time Cyborg cupped his hands to bellow, "Where are you going?".

"To have a word!" Beast Boy called over his shoulder. A wave splashed past their ankles and Raven's feet began to sink with each step into mud but still he pulled her deeper into the water.

"In the ocean?" Robin shouted in disbelief.

"We'll be right back," Beast Boy answered happily.

When the next cresting wave rolled past their chests, Raven's feet left the ocean floor. "Don't you think this is far enough?" she groaned.

"Almost." He glanced back her way with a gleam in his eye and surveyed the beach hesitantly before adding, "I wanna be alone for a sec."

The closest people were a fair ways north up the beach front, and they were invested in some kind of lawless beach volleyball game. There was no one around to hear or see them and Raven was about to say so when Beast Boy winked at her boldly and dove headfirst into an oncoming wave, dragging her right along with him.

Underwater, Raven tumbled and skittered along the sand and her legs became tangled in a billowing net of free floating seaweed, until she felt Beast Boy's hands on her legs, carefully unraveling the slimy plant. Reaching into her well of power she surrounded herself with a bubble of black energy and forced the water away from her face until a pocket of oxygen enveloped her upper body. Outside, a silhouette wavered in the light. With a sigh and a fair bit of trepidation she widened the air pocket to include Beast Boy.

Raven pushed her dripping hair away from her face, refusing to meet his eyes, one hand moving subconsciously to cover her chest. "What are we doing out here?"

Under their bubble, the current waxed and waned and Beast Boy's leg brushed against hers. He was grinning like there was no tomorrow. "Duh, I wanted a closer look at your tattoo!" Gently, he took hold of her wrist and pulled her hand away from her chest.

Sunlight filtered down through blue water and dark energy and left everything inside the bubble looking washed out and gray, tendrils of white light flickering lightly across their skin. "We're underwater," Raven pouted. "The lighting is terrible."

"Don't care," Beast Boy hummed, and linked his free arm around her waist to pull her flush against him. Raven blushed furiously but he didn't notice. His eyes were raking down her neck to linger on the little paw print, stark and black against her pale skin in the sealight. The urge to pull away and hide from his impenitent scrutiny was high but Raven dug her feet into the sand and held still. "I thought you said you would never get it," Beast Boy finally burst, with an air of frustration, releasing her wrist to lock his other arm firmly around her waist. "What gives?"

"I think what I said was 'I wouldn't be caught dead…'"

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, how could I forget? Thanks for reminding me. I guess what I'm asking is: what changed your mind?"

Moving her arms from her sides to his arms with tentative caution, Raven said, "Well…" She trailed off, the blush returning full force. She still wasn't quite used to this and wasn't sure she ever would be. She was trying, though, she really was.

Beast Boy blinked at her, nonplussed. "What?"

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she moved her hands to the neck of his wetsuit and started to unzip it. Beast Boy's grip on her waist slackened as he realized what she was getting at, and she stopped when the zipper reached his navel to push aside the material covering his sternum. Another layer of her heart softened as she rememorized the indigo raven tattoo there, slightly off-center, wings spread in perpetual flight.

"After I said no," she mumbled, "you went and got yours anyway." His tattoo also appeared black here in their bubble, and with some hesitance she placed her hand over it. Despite the freezing water his skin was warm. "I liked it," she admitted. "I liked how it looked. I liked that it was for me. That it was… mine."

Looking back up into his face she saw his gaze had become distant and dreamy, and as she raised her eyebrows curiously something deep in his eyes shifted. His hand went to her neck and he eyed her with severe detachment, like he was a million miles away. She shivered as his fingers brushed lightly at the lingering drops of water under her hair. The pad of his thumb brushed her carotid. Never in all her life had she felt so vulnerable as in this moment, and after a long minute Beast Boy shook his head, ridding a fraction of the intensity from his face. His hand moved down her neck past her clavicle and he trailed his index finger all the way down to the tattoo, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

When he spoke his voice had an almost dangerous edge to it. "Are you saying this one is mine then?"

She wanted to say no; there was a headiness in the air that told her he wasn't talking about the tattoo at all. She wanted to say no. But... stronger than that was the want to say yes, and so Raven gave a short nod. She had finally begun to learn how to pick her battles.

A thrill ran through her when he pounced at her and the bubble pulsed around them, splashing them with water as he pushed her down onto the seabed. Seaweed tangled in her hair but she could do nothing as she struggled in vain to stabilize their air pocket. Beast Boy fell on her heavily, threading his legs with hers and leaning in to whisper in her ear, "I like the way that sounds."

The lattice of light beyond the energy wall above him framed his head in a halo, and she tried to tell him to stopㅡhe was moving too fast, wasn't he?ㅡbut nothing came out. He'd begun to kiss her neck. Suddenly he wasn't moving fast enough. She tried to angle her head to kiss him back but all she could reach was his temple; he was migrating lower.

"Beast Boy," she warned half heartedly.

He was really toeing the line this time. He realized it too, and his kisses grew lighter as they grazed her neckline, testing the invisible boundary. But even as he eased up she made no effort to stop him and eventually he made it back to the tattoo again and placed a solid kiss there. The kiss was remarkably chaste, save for its placement, and stretched on for one endless moment until Beast Boy finally gave into the insatiable urge and opened his mouth, grazing her skin ever-so-slightly with his incisors. Raven's breath hitched (quite noticeably, seeing as he was on top of her).

Beast Boy froze.

Okay, there was no way that Raven had actually just made that delicate, enticing, unabashedly feminine sound. He imagined that, right?

Upon parting from her skin an inch or so he was amused to see she was just as blindsided by her reaction as he was. Beast Boy met her eyes slyly, a look of crazed mischief darkening his expression until her heart raced beyond any rate that could be considered healthy. Very slowly, staring her right in the eye, he stuck out his tongue. Dazed, she held perfectly still, not believing he was truly going to do it even though she saw him going for it and made no move at all to stop him. Animalistic traits hung about Beast Boy the way personality quirks did on other people, some animals more than others, and it was a dog that he reminded Raven of now as he held her gaze with his tongue poking playfully out like that.

But there was nothing more human on Earth than the way he pressed it to her skin, fingers curling behind her ribcage as he traced the entire length of the tattoo. She arched her back, gasping at the sensation, and their bubble collapsed.

They closed their eyes to the saltwater, blind as the current tossed them. After a few tumultuous waves they skidded along the sand and came up spitting water, Raven burning with the heat of a thousand suns and trying to disentangle herself from him, Beast Boy grinning ear to ear like he'd just won the Boston Marathon in a bananasuit.

The smell of charred tofu and byproduct caught their attention as Raven finally managed to pry herself from him, sending him reeling backwards into an oncoming wave. Their three friends were still there in the exact same place as if cursed by a witch. A plume of black smoke was currently billowing from the portable grill. No one took heed.

Starfire was the first to resume screeching. "Friends, what is going on? Why do you have the mark of Beast Boy on your chest?"

Raven opened her mouth to damn everyone to hell but Beast Boy took the reigns, literally stepping in front of her as he headbutted into the conversation. "It's okay, I got this one. The suspect has been cleared of suspicion, guys, no need to worry."

Cyborg finally snapped, his glassy eyed vacancy replaced with straight up bafflement. "Okay, what now?"

Beast Boy met his confusion with a dumbass, self-assured smirk. "All we've got here is a classic case of a copycat crime." He gestured sloppily. "Boom. Open and shut."

At this Robin burst upright, spraying sea shells in every which direction, showering Starfire in fallen sand turrets. "Have you both gone batshit insane? B, what are you talking about?"

"Yes, what are you saying?" Cyborg and Starfire clamored in unison.

Draping one heavy arm lazily across Raven's shoulders in a manner that made it hard to shrug him off without putting a stupid amount of effort into it, Beast Boy geared up for his biggest punchline to date in this lifetime.

"I'm saying," he emphasized, then pulled his still partially-unzipped wetsuit aside with triumphant flair to reveal the raven tattoo therein, "that I had mine done weeks ago."

It must have been ten solid minutes of unintelligible babbling after that mindfuck (during which Beast Boy proudly showed off his ink and complained about how much it had hurt while Raven sat down in the waves and demanded that they drown her) before Beast Boy took pity on Raven. "Okay, okay, you guys have fun at the beach," he said. "Rae and I are gonna peace out."

"What!" Cyborg shrieked. "You can't leave after dropping something like this!"

"Yes!" Star chimed, "We must know the details of this secret tryst!"

Robin was off to the side, near to pulling his hair out. "How did I not see this? I'm the best detective in the entire city and somehow I missed this?"

Beast Boy could tangibly feel Raven calming down as he wobbled up the beach after her, envying the ease with which she hovered over the hot sand. "I'm sorry," he laughed as the dark cloud pressing on her shoulders evaporated. "I had to. You only get a chance at a joke that that once in a lifetime, Raven. Once in a lifetime!" He sighed wistfully, thinking back over his own joke. He didn't care if Raven stayed mad at him for a whole week. The look on his friends' faces when he revealed his own tattoo had been worth unquantifiable amounts of gold.

She stopped at the bottom of the narrow driftwood staircase that meandered up the cliffside toward the parking lot, one hand on the lopsided sign that read _La Playa Oculto_. "I have to admit, their reactions were priceless."

Beast Boy crawled under her as a sandcrab before morphing back to smile down at her from the steps. "Definitely," he agreed.

Something flashed briefly in her eyes, and before Beast Boy could decipher what emotion it was she'd replaced it with her regular stoicism. "Here's a thought… I bet they would have a collective heart attack if they knew the tattoo parlor was having a two for one special."

Beast Boy cocked his head in momentary confusion while she raised her eyebrow and waited for her words to sink in. His mouth fell open, his brain still an inch shy of understanding. "Wait…" He was almost there.

Raven rolled her eyes and pushed past him, leaving him alone at the base of the long staircase.

Wait. Two for one. Two for...?

The tattoo parlor was having a two for one…!

"Wait, WHAT?" he squeaked, the last gear finally clicking into place with a hundred exclamation points. "You got two tattoos?" Raven didn't look back, but on the first landing she had to suppress a smile. "Aren't you gonna show me?"

Raven stepped over the green crab that scuttled under her feet to quickly became a snake that stretched between the two rails to halt her progress. She ducked under him. "You'll find it eventually."

Human again, Beast Boy sat on the railing with a dumbfounded look slapped across his face. He cupped his hands, calling after her, "I'm taking that as a challenge!"

Raven's heart skipped a beat as she registered the loaded implication behind his words. Two-thirds up the staircase she snuck a glance at the palm of her hand, where a little copper penny was inked in the center. The artist had been miffed at the request, citing a hundred reasons why not to get a tattoo on the palm of your hand, but Raven had insisted. She understood that it would fade with time if she didn't get it touched up every year. She knew it would take constant work to maintain. She knew it would be hard. That it would be anything but easy. But…

She looked over her shoulder at Beast Boy, who was still perched on the railing halfway down to the beach, looking her way like she was standing in the only patch of sunlight on the entire west coast. "You heard me," he taunted. "I'm taking that as a challenge, smartass."

A challenge. That's exactly what it would be. Raven curled her hand into a loose fist and pressed it to her heart, wondering how far he would go to find it.


	6. In Which They Miss the Meeting

Just a quick thing I wrote this morning.

. . .

In Which They Miss the Meeting

. . .

"Have you ever been down the tunnel?"

Raven almost choked on her oatmeal when he blurted it out. The morning had been unnaturally quiet until that moment. She'd wandered into the common room to make her tea and grab a bite of breakfast and he had been so pensive that he hadn't even said hello. Not even when she sat across from him, scraping her chair on the tile to try and rouse him from his thoughts. But he had just sat there, staring out the window with a torn expression until finally blurting that out.

Raven set her spoon down. What tunnel? The tunnel that connected the island to the city at the bottom of the bay?

"Without the car, I mean." A blush washed over him but quickly faded. "Obviously you've been down it in the car. I meant walking. Have you ever walked in the tunnel?"

"No," she replied at length. "I can't say that I have."

He bit his lip and drummed his fingers for a moment before rising from his chair. He leaned on both hands over the table, his eyes wide and eager. "Do you want to?"

"Uh… why?" Her curiosity was honest but she realized she'd hurt his feelings as soon as she said it. She opened her mouth, trying to figure out how to soften the question but he got there first.

"You don't have to. I just thought you'd like it. Early morning is the best time to goㅡlike, before 7 o'clock," he added, glancing at the clock in the kitchen. "And I almost never wake up this early so I was thinking I might go down there before everyone else gets up. But I realized maybe you'd never been down there cause you probably didn't know about it and thought we couldㅡ"

"Beast Boy." She stood up, moving her bowl to the sink with her powers. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Before he could reply to that she picked up her full mug of tea and motioned toward the door. "Why don't you just show me?"

The elevator down to the tunnel was as swift as the temperature change. The air down here was cool and damp and perpetual, like that of the innermost chamber of a cave. Their steps echoed away for miles into the tunnel, ricocheting in a spiral around the half-cylindrical glass wall that surrounded them on all sides. The car was there in the spot it usually occupied whenever Cyborg didn't have it in his shop, geared up and ready to go. It felt strange passing it by.

It was dark.

The only lights were the pinpoint emergency lights that lined the middle of the road, vanishing in the distance where the tunnel curved out of sight. Raven had pretty good eyesight but even she was nearly blind. She stayed close behind him, wondering why on earth they were down here and why they hadn't brought a flashlight. All she could see was his thin outline in neon blue. It was pretty creepy. Maybe that's why he thought she'd like it.

"Hold up here," Beast Boy said about fifty yards later, when they'd reached a sort of electrical station. It was hard to tell with that faint blue light. He climbed the ladder onto a raised dias and promptly began fiddling with levers and switches, open and closing metal grids that revealed vast networks of wires and gears. "I always forget which one," he laughed, and Raven was about to raise the concern of Cyborg killing them both for messing up his delicate system, when Beast Boy whooped in triumph. "There it is." He glanced over his shoulder, still laughing. "Cy put a sticky note on it for me and told me never to wake him up before seven again."

There was a loud series of clicks and an electric hum that seemed to come from every direction. Then, suddenly, there was light.

A million lights, actually. Beyond the safety of the glass wall, an endless lineup of florescent lights woke up one by one on the seabed, scattering fish in every direction and reflecting off the glass walls, illuminating the tunnel and the sea. Raven went to the glass, pressing her hand against it, and watched the line of lights as they turned on, continuing on in the distance past the point where the tunnel veered right, climbing an underwater hill and disappearing off the edge, reappearing once more in the distance, faint and faraway.

When she looked up at the dias he was sitting on the edge, grinning like a maniac.

"I didn't know about the lights," she admitted. He'd been right about that.

"They were for construction." He jumped back down to her level, pointing at the nearest of the lights outside. "Cy hasn't used them since, but he let slip about them once and I made him show me."

She had to agree that it was a sight worth seeing; as impressive as the view off the tower roof. "Doesn't it scare away the animal life?" she wondered. It didn't seem like something he would enjoy.

"At first." He shrugged. "They come back after a few minutes. Fish are curious." He gestured onward magnanimously, toward the rest of the tunnel, his face oddly nervous. "After you, then."

He was right again. The fish did come back, and it took less than five minutes. Soon the seafloor was alive, stirring with hundreds of creatures that flitted in and around the coral and seaweed. The lights seemed to draw them in more than they scared them away, and at one point a tiger shark emerged from under a ledge to inspect Raven at the window.

"I think he likes you," Beast Boy joked, peering over her shoulder.

"Probably wants to eat me," she surmised, running one finger along the glass as she walked.

Beast Boy only scoffed. "No way. He probably barks about as loud as you do." He was already walking away when he added, "And bites as hard."

Raven spent the next mile and a half wondering if that was a compliment.

"How far did you want to go?" They were sitting on the cold cement, resting against the glass wall, Raven fiddling with her empty ceramic mug as they sat there. Raven was studying a school of fish that was circling a mound of mid-bloom coral, and scarcely heard his question. "Cause we're more than halfway to the end," he went on, "where it comes out on the beach. We could probably turn back now and still make it to the morning meetup on time."

After a moment of contemplation and mug-twirling and no answer, Beast Boy addended the proposal. "Or we could continue to the end and then you could open a portal back to the tower," he suggested. "I don't think we'd be late." He sounded so hopeful that she knew he really wanted her to pick the latter.

She set her mug down. Even that small clink echoed slightly in the tunnel. "Or," she suggested evenly, "we could go on to the end and get some coffee at the beach. The tunnel comes out pretty close to the West End Brew." For some reason she couldn't look at him, and focused on the spiraling school of fish. "You like coffee, right?"

His smile was obvious in his voice, even though she wasn't looking. "Coffee is my lifesource. You know that. I thought you only drank tea, though."

"Sometimes coffee is more appropriate," she answered cryptically, and for once accepted his hand as he offered to help her to her feet.

"You know we'll miss the meeting if we go for coffee. Robin will kill us."

"He'll live." Raven kept her eyes on the thriving morning ocean as they walked on, completely forgetting about her mug as it disappeared behind them. "Besides, I'm having fun."

"Me too," he sighed, and something brushed her hand. She glanced his way and he swiftly threw his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers and nearly tripping over his own feet. "Me too!" he repeated, a bit too enthusiastically.

Raven spent the last mile wondering if he'd just tried to hold her hand.

_. . ._

_Optional ending in which Cyborg drives down the tunnel later and gets a flat when he runs over her mug. Haha._

_I went to an aquarium last week. Can you tell? _


	7. Bullet

Hey so I've been writing some REALLY FAST FICTION! I wanted to simply churn out some stuff without spending too much time on it, just for fun. I found a big ol' list of **one word writing prompts** and I've been winging through the list for a few days now. I'll probably post one a day till I get bored of writing them, cause they're really short and easy to do. All around it's a great writing exercise that I highly recommend. If you want the list, either for your personal use or to see what's coming up next, you can find it at towriteprompts dot tumblr dot com slash onewordprompts. The first word on the list is:

. . .

Bullet

. . .

A high pitched sound pierced his eardrums. He never heard the gunshot even though he saw the black barrel whip toward him and flash white. It was odd; he didn't wonder why a stranger was shooting at him in a grocery store, or why his ears were ringing, or why he was still holding onto the carton of soymilk when his other hand had dropped the bag of apples the moment the stranger pulled an oversized gun from his winter jacket. There they were, eight wobbly green apples on the grungy tile by the wall of gatorade, still rolling away. What he wondered was: _where's all the blood?_

He prodded his chest looking for the hole while Robin and Starfire wrestled the man easily to the ground.

_Nice save, Raven! _The words floated at him like they were filtering through a tin can phone line. Cyborg clapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" He was starting to hear again but he didn't understand what he was hearing. Nothing hurt. No blood. Had the shooter really missed at such close range? He'd been less than five feet away and the aim had seemed so true. No way. There was just no way.

"You're lucky she was here, man, or you'd be a goner." Cyborg pointed at the wall behind him and Beast Boy turned to see a ragged bullet hole where it had torn through the drywall behind a shelf of Coca Cola.

Raven, who he noticed now was breathing rather heavily, attempted to calm herself. "It was a reflex," she stated. Now he understood. She must have opened a portal in front of him, so swiftly that he hadn't even seen her do it, ensuring the bullet would sail straight through him into the wall on the other side. Amazing. Absolutely amazing! She was _incredible!_ He should be a dead man but Raven had saved him with her remarkable cleverness and you know what? Screw this, screw that, screw everything. He'd had enough of this waiting game. He could have died just now and then what would this delicate chess-like tiptoey lovegame have won him for all his patience? Nothing! So screw it!

Raven's adrenaline morphed into fear. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Without another thought Beast Boy dropped the milk and yanked her towards him for the kind of full-on, nothing coy about it, no mistaking his intentions kind of kiss that saving his life deserved. Everything felt right in that moment when she finally relaxed. When he pulled away she murmured, "Why did you do that?" But the way she glanced at the others (who were standing stock still and jaw-dropped) made him sure she really meant: _Why did you do that in front of everyone we know?_

Beast Boy followed her gaze. Yep. Everyone was staring, their eyes demanding the answer to Raven's question. "Uh… It was a reflex?"

Raven groaned but he was inwardly patting himself on the back. Nice save, Beast Boy.

. . .

_Idk why a stranger was shooting at them in a grocery store. Could be for many reasons. My theory is it's a crazed criminal who was recently released from prison, bent on revenge. The stranger probably shot at Beast Boy first because of all the horrific puns he made at the time of the capture._


	8. Wind

Whoops, I forgot to upload yesterday's one word exercise. Here ya go.

. . .

Wind

. . .

"I think I'm going to go home."

"What?" Starfire landed on the blanket beside Raven with a look of utmost horror. "Whatever for? We have only been here for a single hour!"

"I can't read with all this wind," Raven explained. It had been whipping her hair about her face relentlessly ever since they arrived at the park, and truth be told it was driving her absolutely insane. She was going to unintentionally explode the whole basketball court and the boys' ball too if she didn't leave.

"Leaving is not a solution," Starfire tsked. "Might I propose a better one that allows you to stay, despite the wind?"

"That depends on what it is." Raven crossed her arms, unsure what to make of the giddy expression spreading across Starfire's face as she began to bounce in place.

Ten minutes later, Raven had to admit that while she felt a little silly, her anger level had dropped back down to zero. She ran her fingers across the bumpy twin braids that Starfire had crafted on each side of her head to the point where they met in the middle on the back and cascaded down. Her hair still whipped freely on the back of her neck, but her face (and more importantly, her eyes) were now safe and hair-free.

"Thank you, Star." Raven preferred to save nicknames for the most special of moments, and right now it felt like one of those. Starfire almost combusted with happiness, both at the gratitude and the show of familiarity.

"Hey, friends!" Starfire shouted in the direction of the basketball court, where the boys were currently duking it out on the north end (Robin was losing since Starfire had left him to check on Raven). "Look what Raven has finally allowed me to do!"

Robin broke free from the skirmish and tore across the court to the other side. "Cool, Star!" he said without really looking.

"Lookin' good!" Cyborg said, flashing Raven two thumbs up as he ducked around Robin to cut him off and steal the ball. "Heads up, B!" He threw the ball toward his teammate, but instantly regretted it. "_Look alive!_ _It's_-ouch." The basketball had smashed right into Beast Boy's face, leaving him with one hell of a bloody nose.

Robin called a timeout so the boys could join the girls on the picnic blanket in the grass. "Where is your head?" Cyborg was complaining, though he looked really concerned. "Coulda broken your whole face…"

"You guys keeb play'ng. I's fide." Beast Boy's words were a bit muffled by the blood in his mouth and the pinched fingers on his nose. "I'll jus' sid out wi' Raben while she heals be. Star an' Rob vers' Cy." He glared at Cyborg with an evil grin.

"That's fair," Cyborg chuckled.

Raven had tried all the while to control her furious blush, but when everyone jogged back to the court and Beast Boy scooted as close as humanly possible, she just couldn't do it. Therefore she kept her eyes down as she reached toward his damaged nose.

"Umb... you look really preddy, by the way."

She cleared her throat, wishing the healing process didn't take so long. In reality it was a relatively quick thing to do, especially minor injuries like this, but today it felt like forever. She was distracted. "Thanks," she said after a minute. Normally she'd have been taken aback at such a forward statement, but this time his compliment hadn't come as a surprise. Maybe she'd been the only one who had seen, but Beast Boy had only taken the basketball to the face because he had been staring at her dumbstruck when Cyborg had thrown it.


	9. Resurface

This one's reeeally short but I still like it. ;)

. . .

Resurface

. . .

Beast Boy almost jumped out of his skin when Raven touched his shoulder. He turned away from the railing like he'd just seen a ghost on the surface of the waves. "What?"

"Robin called. They apprehended the suspect already; he was on the other ferry the whole time. Let's go meet up with them at the docks." She took in his pale expression, his tight grip on the railing, even though the sea was smooth as glass and the tilt of the boat was hardly enough to roll a marble. She probed at his aura and was taken aback by the absolute tumult of negative emotions she found. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, a little too quickly, and then quailed under her unwavering gaze. "It's just, you know." He scratched his neck, watching a seagull that came and went from the deck before throwing his hands back on the rail like it was on the seat of a rollercoaster instead of the edge of a ferry. "I _really _hate boats, Rae."

Her eyebrows shot up and she could have hit herself. "Oh." Of course that was it.

"It's okay," he said quickly, "I mean, I'm okay. I'm not gonna like, freak out or anything." He sounded like he was convincing himself more than her, but she nodded. "It's psychological, I think. Just being here gets my heart pounding and I feel like I'm gonna fail to save them all over again. I know," he added when it became obvious she was about to contest that. They'd been over this a thousand times, ever since he confided to her what had happened that day and how he was still messed up over it. Over what could have been. "You don't have to say anything. I know. There was nothing I could've done. I was too young, too inexperienced, and it wasn't my fault they died. Come on," he sighed, "let's blow this joint."

But Raven didn't open a portal just yet. She slid in next to him at the rail, leaning back on both elbows and looking up into his eyes. "For what it's worth," she said slowly, "I think your parents would be proud of you. You've come a long way since you were that little boy on the river."

"I guess I have." He relaxed his grip on the rail somewhat, and a goofy sort of confidence straightened his shoulders. "At least I'd know what to do if the same thing were to happen again today."

Raven couldn't help but smile. This may possibly be the healthiest conversation they'd ever had on the death of his parents. "And what would that be?"

Beast Boy grinned down at her, outshining her little smile by a million watts. "Save the ones I love, of course."


	10. Winter

Another one word prompt.

. . .

Winter

. . .

"It all seems kinda… cultish. Right?"

Raven stared at him before accepting the styrofoam cup of hot chocolate he had brought her. "Exactly," she said at length. "How did you know what I was thinking?" Cultish. That had been the word she was searching for just before he walked up.

Beast Boy shrugged and moved out of the way for a group of screaming children still sporting their nativity costumes, though the play had been over for nearly an hour. The carolers had taken the stage now-it was the advanced choir from JCU, and they were putting Christmas carolers around the world to shame with their unearthly harmonies. Behind them stood the thirty foot Christmas tree that everyone had come out tonight to see. After the carolers finished it would finally be time to light it. Cyborg was off somewhere in the park hamming it up as Santa Claus and Starfire had dragged Robin up to the front so better to hear the music and see the lights when the time was right. That left Raven to wait for the lighting ceremony with Beast Boy, who had brought her the hot chocolate as reparations for getting snow inside her hoodie during an enthusiastic snowball fight with the kid in the Joseph costume.

"You remember that I grew up outside the US, don't you?" Beast Boy joked as the audience clapped for a madrigal version of _O, Holy Night_. "I didn't experience any of this stuff first-hand till I was like, twelve."

Momentarily surprised by his statement, she stopped trying to shake the leftover snow from her hoodie. "Right, of course."

She didn't know why she hadn't thought about that before in the context of holidays. Of course Robin and Cyborg were super into Christmas, as homegrown hot-blooded Americans, and Starfire had a fiery enthusiasm for each and every holiday on Earth. But for once, Beast Boy was like Raven.

Maybe it was the hot chocolate's doing, but even though snow had begun to melt inside her shirt, Raven was feeling a little less cold.

"It's _strange_, isn't it?" she entreated, relieved to have found someone to talk to that shared her sentiments. "All these people who don't know each other, getting together to sing praises to a being only half of them believe in. And where do trees and presents come into it? And elves, for that matter? The significance of all this," she gestured lazily at the stage with her free hand, "escapes me." Really, she was trying. She'd been trying to understand this holiday for years. Though she had learned to just shut up and enjoy the festivities, it had never quite clicked with her on an emotional level.

"Oh yeah," he agreed. "It's hella strange. But… good-strange. Come on, I wanna show you something."

Confused, she followed him through the crowd and around the back side of the rented stage, into full view of the towering evergreen. Gold tinsel was draped around it in bountiful layers, and up close she could see the strings of electric lights that would soon illuminate the entire town square. "What are these?" she asked, pointing at the nearest of the little paper balls hung on the branches, each decorated with small print.

"Look closer!"

She did. _Alejandra Fuller,_ this one said. _Age 13. Likes baseball, musicals, and Pokemon._

"All the ornaments represent a child in need," Beast Boy explained, "like one whose parents can't afford presents, or aren't around for one reason or another. Someone like us takes the ornament and buys the kid a present. What a crazy holiday, huh?"

"Yes," she had to agree, plucking the ornament from the tree. "A crazy holiday." A fat snowflake stung her nose and she shivered with sudden misgivings. "Um… If I take this, could you help me find something for her? I don't know anything about sports or musicals or whatever this-"

"Pokemon. And yeah." He tugged his scarf free of his neck and offered it up to her with a hopeful glint in his eye. "You wanna just.. go now?"

"I _am_ fairly sick of Christmas carols," she grumbled. "And I don't particularly care about the lights, which will be up for 25 more days." She traded the rest of her hot chocolate for his enormous woolen scarf and wrapped it around her neck and shoulders, shuddering with relief. It was still warm.

"Yeah, me neither. I mean, Star put the lights up on the tower the day after Halloween! I'm over it already, y'know? Let's go to the mall, then. It'll be nearly empty and I guess now is as good a time as any to teach you about the wonders of Pokemon."

She rubbed her hands together as they left the park behind. "Pokemon." She tested the word on her tongue, trying to remember what it meant. He eyed her curiously as he plucked snow off windowsills, pressing it into a ball in his hands. "That's the eight day Jewish holiday, right?"

"Uhh, no, Rae." He laughed and smushed the half-formed snowball on her arm. "I think you're thinking of Hanukkah."

Raven buried him in snow with her powers and used his scarf to hide her embarrassment. "That's what I said."

* * *

_I feel like everyone always forgets that the only people that grew up normalized to American culture are Rob and Cy. I love exploring how differently everyone would react to stuff like this. (I've always thought Christmas must seem totally weird to anyone who didn't grow up celebrating it.)_

**PLEASE NOTE: **It's been brought to my attention that I was a little confusing (probably especially with that note there at the end). Obviously Christmas isn't a purely American holiday. I was referring specifically to the commercialization and corporatizing of the holiday that happened over the last century in the US (seen here in the fic with the events and the Santas and the way people who didn'_t _believe in it were still participating). Obviously BB had heard of Christmas before moving there, and possibly even celebrated it, he just probably wouldn't have been used to the_ in-your-face_ness of it that happens in big cities. I imagine anyone that moves into a big western city from outside that culture would take awhile to get completely accustomed to it. Even here in the story I would say he's gotten used to it, I think it's just easier for him to see how Rae's feeling about it since he has been there done that. Hope this clears that up a bit. Thanks!

_Next OWP: cruelty_


	11. Cruelty

And today's one word prompt is:

. . .

Cruelty

. . .

An uncomfortable tension had settled upon the tower. No one had accused him out loud yet, but Beast Boy knew that they suspected him. It wasn't fair, but he honestly couldn't blame them. He would've suspected himself too, if he were them. Hell, he _wished _he was guilty. He'd thought hard about doing it and probably would have if someone hadn't beaten him to the punch.

It had happened two weeks ago. A big scandal had taken over the news when an ex-employee blew the whistle on a nonprofit Big Name so-called animal rights group, detailing exactly how anti-animal the company actually was. Reporters were calling it Petgate. Apparently only five percent of the animals the organization picked up were actually adopted out, and the vast majority were euthanized, no matter the age or health of the animal. That level of cruelty was obviously unforgivable and it was a media landslide from the get go, an absolute hell riot from the moment the story was picked up. It hadn't even begun to taper off when the unthinkable happened. Someone broke in and made off with all the animals, effectively saving their lives. Every. Single. Animal.

So, yeah. Beast Boy was a suspect.

Not officially. There was virtually no evidence left behind. The locks on the cages weren't even broken. The police were "looking" for the perpetrator but it was evident they really would prefer to pat whoever did it on the back. Sure, it was technically theft. Sure, it was breaking and entering. Sure they'd committed a crime, but no one seemed too torn up over it, least of all the police.

The tower, meanwhile, had been woefully quiet ever since the break-in hit the headlines. Just because a crime saved lives didn't make it less of a crime. Beast Boy could practically hear the lecture now. _You are not above the law, Beast Boy, _plain as day in Robin's voice.

Robin had been staring at Beast Boy for days, like cats and dogs were gonna start leaping out of his sleeves any moment. He wanted to scream. Cyborg had that constant "about to ask you something personal" look on his face, but managed never to ask. Starfire had been the least subtle about it and had spent the entire last week searching the tower top the bottom; under the couch and behind the fridge and in every closet and air duct. Beast Boy kept asking what she was looking for and she would just say something like, "Silkie." He wanted to scream!

The only one who didn't seem to suspect him was Raven. On Sunday night after a particularly infuriating dinner in which Starfire swore she heard something meowing, Beast Boy sought out Raven, who hadn't made it to the dinner table. He was desperate to talk to someone who didn't look at him like he was a criminal.

She would only open her door a crack, but that was enough for him to ask, "You don't think I did it, do you?"

Raven stared at him for a moment before opening the door a few inches more. "You didn't."

Beast Boy pressed a hand to his forehead in relief. "Right! Exactly. Dude, thank you! Do you think maybe you could talk to Robin or… Wait. You sound so sure." He furrowed his eyebrows at her, uncertain what to make of her impassive face. "Why are you so sure that I didn't do it?"

She glanced at something behind her door. "I just know. Goodnight, Beast Boy." But before her door clicked shut he heard it. Distinctly. _Meow._

He rudely shouldered her door open and there it was. A little black cat. A little black cat with a kink in its tail and missing a little chunk of its right ear, but otherwise whole and happy as it drank from a little bowl by Raven's bed. "_Is that a-"_

Raven slammed the door closed, looking more uneasy than he'd ever seen her in his life. "Okay," she seethed. "I did it. It was me. I couldn't just do nothing while they euthanized hundreds of healthy animals. I had the capability, so it would have been wrong _not _to free them."

"But how did you-"

"I opened up portals directly into their cages."

"And where did-"

"To humane shelters outside of the city."

"But what about-!"

"I liked her, okay?" Raven stepped between Beast Boy and the frizzy cat to scoop her up. She was a tiny little thing, but she purred like a motorbike in Raven's arms. "Sue me."

"They might!" Beast Boy whispered a bit manically. "If they find out you did this you're dead, Raven."

"There is no way on Earth they will find out. I left no evidence behind and the police aren't exactly putting forth their best effort to find the animals. Police officers are dog lovers by trade. Besides," she added wanly, "I knew if I didn't do something about it then you were definitely going to. I could see it on your face every time the news was on. And _you _would have gotten caught," she added decisively, "so you're welcome."

"God I love you," he laughed wistfully, and pulled the cat from her arms. "You know that, right?"

Raven pressed her lips together, a bit miffed at how quickly her new cat took to Beast Boy. "I love you too," she joked back, wrongfully assuming that he'd meant it in a platonic, friendly way. "But you can't have this cat. I already named her. Tell him, Poe."

"Dammit," he complained when Poe started meowing.


	12. Happiest

The one word prompts continue.

. . .

Happiest

. . .

Raven poked at the dying coals leftover from last night's fire and tried to decide whether she should get it going again or just move on from here. Birds twittered in the redwood canopy above her and for some reason it amplified her loneliness. All her books lay forgotten inside her one man tent. She hadn't felt like reading in days.

They'd been disbanded for just over three weeks, but already it felt like a lifetime of solitude was stretching out before her.

At first she'd thought that now was the perfect time for a soul-searching backpacking sabbatical while she figured out what to do next with her life, but she had reached an internal brick wall very soon after her departure from Jump. The others had it all figured out. Cyborg had immediately been elected to lead another team in another city. Good for him. Robin and Starfire had all but eloped and were trying their hand at the whole 'dynamic duo' thing. Good for them. Beast Boy had gone solo off the map somewhere in South America. Good for him. Truly; she was happy for them. But in the face of their certainty, Raven felt all the more lost.

The coals crackled while she turned her mirror over and over in her hands. This past year she'd felt herself growing out of it. She hadn't needed the mirror all that much as of late, preferring to sort out her own emotions in this reality before resorting to the metaphysical level for assistance. But her emotions were difficult to decipher when she was stuck so hard on the past.

_Why _was she so stuck?

Some of the saddest times of her life had happened while she was playing hero. The end of the world. The betrayal of an ally. The death of a friend. These things considered, it made sense to take a break from that lifestyle while she sorted out what she wanted for her future. Yet... being a hero had provided the happiest times of her life as well. She smiled and set her mirror aside. The happiest times were not so few that she could list them off in the same manner. But what did it all mean? Did it mean that she missed being a hero, or was there something else altogether which eluded her?

One of the twittering birds swooped down from the canopy and skipped across the log where she sat, lingering on the handle of her mirror to inspect its reflection. It chirped at her once before taking flight.

Raven sighed, and rose to gather more firewood so she could make breakfast. Maybe she did miss being a hero. Here in the forest she could admit to herself that a part of her needed the praise, the assurance that she was doing good things. She missed knowing her place in the world. But even more so, she missed her friends. She had grown too dependent on them in their years together, and that meant she would have to learn how to be alone all over again if she ever wanted to be happy.

But as she stoked the fire, she recalled the shiniest golden hours with her friends and tried to remember if she had _ever _been as happy on her own as with someone by her side.

In the end she dug her communicator from the bottom of her pack and reclaimed her seat on the log. Small orange flames reflected on the screen as she scrolled through the list of names. Who to call when she felt this alone? As she debated, some relevant words of comfort came back to her from years ago, when she had been lifted back up from the lowest of lows. She knew who to call.

"Raven?" When his face glitched into focus he seemed shocked to see her. For a moment she just drank in his voice and his face, the beloved familiarity of it all. She hadn't seen or spoken to any of her friends since they parted ways nearly a month ago. "You okay?" he wondered, leaning in closer to his communicator.

"Yeah." She was surprised to find herself choked up. "I'm just…" Honesty or no honesty? "A little lonely," she confessed.

His face fell, but quickly brightened again. "Miss me that much, huh?"

That helped her sober up. She wrinkled her nose, trying not to throw her communicator. "Don't test me. I _will _hang up."

"I miss you too," he chittered on, unphased. "It's been weird being alone after being on a team for so long. It's an adventure, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure I'm cut out for this whole 'solo' thing. How's the sabbatical going?"

"Too quiet," she said. "I never thought I'd grow weary of introspection but, well, here we are."

"You know," he said, after a moment of serious contemplation. "You could always come visit me. I'm in Brazil right now weeding out some drug lords. There's a few I'm having trouble with and I would honestly appreciate the help. It doesn't exactly compare to a relaxing sabbatical, I know, but-"

"Okay."

"Wait, really? Just like that?"

"Sure," she shrugged. "I can help with that."

After disconnecting, she packed her bag slowly, savoring for the first time in days the breathing of the forest. She felt completely rejuvenated. As she shouldered her pack she sensed the path changing ahead of her. Good.

She smiled, realizing that the happiest she'd ever felt alone were the times when she trusted that she wasn't alone at all. Not even here, a hundred miles from civilization, kept company only by birds and squirrels and streams, by moss and fungus and towering redwoods that had grown old for centuries, braiding their roots beneath the riverbed until the whole forest breathed as one. Not even here.

* * *

_Next OWP: stalked_


	13. Stalked

Another one word prompt.

. . .

Stalked

. . .

Beast Boy gaped at the grafitti on the front door, trying to figure out how best to handle this while also struggling not to completely lose his shit. He'd come outside to splash around in the surf before breakfast since it had been a hundred degrees out all week, but had immediately skidded to a halt when he saw the obscene spray painted message. It wasn't the first time this month that someone had sent a horrifically explicit message for Raven, but it was the first time that it had been hand delivered and painted on their property. That meant the stalker had _been _here last night. He narrowed his eyes at the words _demon whore _and promptly went back inside for a bucket of fresh paint.

Over breakfast, Beast Boy managed to casually mention the note without betraying that it had been far worse than any of the recent creepy letters that had been clogging the mailbox. Raven was irked, as usual, but refused to give it any further attention.

"Shouldn't we _do _something?" Beast Boy demanded, turning to Robin for backup. He was starting to wish he had been honest about the whole 'he came to the island and graffitied our door' thing, but he hadn't wanted to upset Raven.

Robin grimaced at his bagel. "I don't like it but it's up to Raven. If she wants to just keep ignoring it then that's what we'll do."

"It's still the best course of action," Raven deadpanned. "Ignore him and he'll eventually lose interest. After all, it's happened before."

It was true. They were all heroes and they all dealt with their fair share of admirers, but even so, Raven's had always been more hardcore than the rest. Her dark vibe drew a darker crowd, and when the crowd was dark then the darkest of them were downright scary.

Beast Boy glared into his coffee mug. "Not like this," he muttered angrily.

He crept out of his room that night to keep watch on the beach. The stalker never showed, and Robin gave him hell for lazing his way through the next day's training since he hadn't slept a wink. Cyborg wanted to go to the arcade but Beast Boy slept away the afternoon instead and lay awake all night, watching the beach for signs of motion. But the stalker didn't come back until Friday night, four days after the graffiti incident.

Beast Boy was a little frog, croaking away on a rock by the newly repainted door when the motor boat beached on the shore. He waited. It hurt (god how he wanted to throttle him) but he waited. He had to make sure it was the right guy before going all full metal jacket on him.

The man was lanky and sauntered up the beach like he owned the entire western hemisphere. He carried with him a fat duffelbag, which clanked heavily when he dropped it by the door. As soon as he pulled out a can of spray paint, Beast Boy leapt into action. He had the man pinned in a headlock with his face smashed against the door before he'd even been spotted. The man cried out as Beast Boy twisted his arm behind his back, forcing him to release the can of paint.

"Let me go, let me go, let me-"

"Shut up," Beast Boy growled. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

The man was quiet for a moment, whimpering against the door. "Is that a trick question?"

"No, douchebag! It's not. Obviously I know what you're doing here. But I want you to say it."

After another whimpery minute and and a halfhearted escape attempt, the man gave in. "I was gonna leave a message on your door."

"For who?" he hissed.

The man cried out at the pressure on his wrist. "For the demon girl! For _Raven!"_ he wheezed. "For-"

"That's enough," Beast Boy decided, and twisted the man around before shoving him back against the door, but this time looking him in the eyes. "Empty your pockets."

The man blinked rapidly, bewildered, but quavered under the ferocity of Beast Boy's glare and did as he was told. Beast Boy snatched the wallet from his hands and sifted through it without breaking eye contact until he found the guy's driver's license, giving it a disgusted glance before tucking it in his own pocket and throwing the wallet over his shoulder into the sand. "I know I won't need to say this more than once, Jones." He pushed his arm harder into Jones's shoulders, hitting him with the wildest, most ferocious look he could unlock. "Never come here again. Never contact her again. Hell, I don't even want you to say her name again. Get it?"

"Are you threatening me?" The man grew indignant, some of his fear fading in the process. "You can't do that!"

"I don't remember threatening you," Beast Boy argued. "But," he went on dangerously, "I _will _remember your name."

The man struggled suddenly under his forceful grip, and this time Beast Boy relinquished him. "I get it, you psycho. Fuck! You can have her!"

A wave of sweet satisfaction flooded him as the stalker fled down the beach. Maybe he'd been a little heavy-handed, but man that had felt good. If Raven wasn't going to give that guy what-for because she was too level-headed then _someone _had to do it. For her sake! And you know what? By jove, he was willing to bend his values just a smidge if it meant keeping scum like that away from her. She deserved so much better.

He slept well that night. But the next day after training, Robin called him into his office.

"You must think I'm real stupid, Beast Boy." Robin gave him an odd look and gestured for Beast Boy to take a seat. He didn't. He was frozen in place. All he could think was _shit shit shit shit._

"The sensors went off," Robin went on, "the second that guy set foot on our beach on Monday. I found out later that day that there'd been someone on the shore at night, so I was watching the cameras all week, waiting for him to come back. Of course I wouldn't just do _nothing _if Raven was in legitimate danger."

"Wait." He calculated all this information slowly and came up empty. "So you knew I was sitting out there waiting for the guy to come back? And you just… let me?"

Robin leaned against his desk and crossed his arms. "I wanted to see what you were going to do."

Beast Boy tried to read his leader's stoic expression, but promptly gave up. "So… what. Am I off the team? I'm off the team, aren't I?"

Robin actually laughed, before quickly schooling his expression again. "No. No, you're not. Actually, I'm impressed at how well you were able to keep your cool. I was afraid you were going to do something questionable, at which point I would have stepped in, but you handled it fairly well, uh, all things considered. I can't say for sure that I myself would have handled it as levelly."

Realizing that he wasn't in trouble at all, Beast Boy's face lit up. "So I passed the test, then?"

Robin shuffled some papers on his desk and took a seat. "With flying colors, Beast Boy. But you should know that I have to tell Raven what happened. It's not right to keep her in the dark when it directly concerns her."

Beast Boy flushed at that, though he'd suspected it was coming.

Robin flashed him a sly grin. "Is there a problem with that?" He tapped his fingertips together.

_You can have her! _Remembering the stalker's words, Beast Boy cringed. He'd smiled so shamelessly as the guy ran away. God, he really hoped Robin didn't show her the security tape. "Nope," he wheezed. "No problem at all."

* * *

_The next OWP is "immortality" and it'll probably be the last one._


	14. Immortality

Just to clarify, there will likely be more one-shots in this collection in the future. I'm not done writing I'm just done with this little 'one word prompt' exercise, haha. Sorry guys. Some of the reviews sounded a little heartbroken. I really appreciate it. But never fear, I don't think my work is done here yet. BUT, I have recently picked up two longtime hiatus-ized stories for two different fandoms, so it might be awhile before I post anything for TT. I know I have two other unfinished stories here but to be fair, the other ones came first haha. And besides, I finished Birds in the Rain which is really more than I ever planned to do haha. Love you guys. Enjoy this one. It felt right ending this exercise on this story, for some reason.

. . .

Immortality

. . .

Beast Boy crumpled up his ice cream wrapper and launched it across the walkway at the trashcan, sinking dejectedly onto the bench when he missed. Raven woke from her reverie in order to move it from the pavement into the bin with a flick of her wrist.

"Okay, what gives?" Beast Boy threw his hands up and rounded on her as she sat by him. "Are you mad at me or what? What did I do?"

"I'm not mad." She folded her arms and waited for him to chill out.

"You haven't spoken a word to me since we got here. You didn't have to say yes, you know, we could've just stayed home today. I wouldn't have minded. If you're not mad then why are you acting so dang withdrawn?"

Her eyebrow twitched. He was really clueless sometimes. "I'm not _mad_, Gar. I'm just feeling pensive this morning." It was the heavy layer of clouds that had settled low on the city overnight. The skyscrapers left long rippling trails, like islands in the sea. Cloudy days always got her thinking.

His mood shifted as he thought over what she said. "Oh." He scooted closer and threw one arm up over the back of the park bench. "Whatcha thinkin' about?"

She eyed him, weighing her words. He'd been so eager to get outside and enjoy the nice weather. Should she really ruin his day with the depressing thoughts that had been circling her head like carrion?

"Come on," he urged happily. "You promised you'd always be honest with me when we got married. It was in your vows, remember?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose. How could she forget when he reminded her every single day? Why had she ever included that part, again? "Alright," she relented. "I've been thinking about mortality a lot this morning."

He pulled a face. _Yikes _flashed like a neon road sign behind his eyes. "Mortality, huh? That's some heavy stuff for 10am, Rae."

"Well, I…" Damn, why did she have to include that part about honesty in her vows? "I have to come clean about something else as well. Something I did."

His face grew hard. "You been sleeping with the milkman again? I told you we were finished if you-"

"Can you please be serious for a second?"

He scooted even closer and pulled her into his side. "Come on, lighten up," he laughed. "Go ahead, come clean. It can't be that bad."

"While you were still sleeping this morning I… tried something." She leaned away and threaded her fingers into the hair at the very base of his scalp, where his forest green hair began its subtle fade into peppered gray. It was still relatively new. She'd noticed it last time he'd gotten his hair cut. Of course he'd had a minor meltdown when she pointed it out, but he'd quickly grown used to it and was starting to actually like it. _It makes me look more mature than I actually am, _he'd joke. _Finally, _she'd respond. _It only took you forty years to grow up._

But that morning when she'd woken to the gray sky she had been overwhelmed with melancholy as she watched him snore. It seemed only yesterday they had been children together, yet here they were with their first gray hairs.

"What?" Beast Boy pulled her hand out of his hair and held it to his chest, growing concerned at her silence. "What'd you do?"

Raven looked away. "I tried to fix your hair. I should have asked first. I'm sorry."

He blinked at her, not understanding. "Fix it? What are you talking about? What's wrong with my hair?" He frantically felt at his head, like he'd find gum stuck fast in there somewhere.

"No, no, I tried to heal your gray patch. I thought maybe I could. It didn't work though, and anyway I should have asked."

He let his hands drop to his lap. It took a moment for him to respond. "Why would you do that?"

She blinked, surprised that her eyes had begun to water. "I wanted to know if my healing powers could heal the effects of aging. I suppose they can't."

"Hey, hey, it's alright." She let him hug her close and closed her eyes as he kissed her on the temple. "It's just a few gray hairs. We still have a lot of time left, Rae. So much time."

"Time is finite."

Beast Boy laughed. "Sure, yeah. So we're not immortal. Go figure. It was a good try, though, I'll hand you that."

"Please be serious."

"I am, love. I am. Everyone grows old and everyone dies but at least I get to do it with you. Maybe we don't have forever, but I'll take what I can get, you know?"

She squeezed his hand and rose from the bench. "Yes," she agreed. "I know."

They walked along in contented silence until it began to drizzle. Beast Boy looked up, squinting his eyes at the sky. Raven let some of the rain pool in the palm of her hand and suggested they turn towards home, but he didn't seem to hear her. Instead he frowned at her. "Hey, you're sure you didn't just try to fix it because you didn't like it right?" He patted his neck self-consciously. "Cause I could dye it if you don't like it."

From an inside pocket of her coat she plucked a small umbrella and pressed the button to release it. She held it up high enough for him to duck inside as well, then made him hold it so she could cross her arms scathingly. "You know I would never do that, and furthermore, that I would never ask you to do that."

"Are you sure?" He leaned toward her with an eager glint in his eye. "Cause... I'm not afraid of dying."

After a long dry moment in the safety of the umbrella, he winked down at her.

"Get it?" he prodded. "Cause hair dye? And we were talking about mortality? Hey!"

Raven had already walked away, taking the umbrella with her. But he beamed as rain dripped down his face and drenched his ever unruly hair; he was sure he'd seen her laughing before she turned away.

* * *

**_P.S._ **_Holy fuck am I proud of that pun. Seriously. I have been basking in this pun from the moment it fell out of my brain onto the keyboard. I am never going to top this. In my whole entire life, I will never again speak such a fitting punchline._


	15. Not A Big Deal

For fun. I know it's short but whatever. It was just a tiny idea that I got hooked on.

* * *

. . .

Not A Big Deal

. . .

Raven hated big deals. That much he knew.

He'd tried to surprise her with a roomful of roses on their first Valentine's Day, but she had been embarrassed and wouldn't talk to him for hours. He'd tried to do the whole 'twelve days of christmas' for her once but on the second day of that she had guessed the rest of his presents and demanded the surprises stop. She hated birthday parties and holiday gatherings and big to dos about pretty much anything, and he got it. She didn't like being at the center of attention, or dealing with enormous outputs of emotion when big emotional events took place in public.

Personally he loved that kind of cheesy crap to death, but he loved Raven more, so eventually he learned to just accept that part of her. No more surprises. No more crazy exorbitant public displays of affection. No more big deals.

This was why he found himself sweating nervously behind her on a Tuesday morning as she read peacefully on the couch in the common room. Was he really just gonna do it? Was he insane?

"Can I help you?" she finally said without looking up from her thick book, after he'd been standing there silent for a full five minutes.

"Uh," he squeaked, then cleared his throat. "Yeah. I was just… wondering... what you're doing later."

Raven shrugged and turned the page on the beginning of the next chapter. "Probably reading," she said. "Why?"

Beast Boy climbed over the back of the couch to slide in next to her, pulling a little black box out of his pocket. "I meant, like, for the rest of your life," he spat out in one breath. He snapped it open and she finally looked up from her book. First at the ring, then at him.

"Probably reading," she said. "Why?"

He laughed loudly, then pulled the ring out, throwing the box over his shoulder for the roomba to get stuck on. "I dunno, I thought we could do something."

Raven eyed the ring and then offered her hand up, her other hand holding the place in her book as he slipped it on her finger. "Yeah," she agreed. "That sounds like fun. Did you have something specific in mind?"

He shrugged and then knocked her over for a series of warm, celebratory kisses. "I dunno," he admitted as he kissed her. "I was thinking we could just wing it, y'know?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "We always do."


End file.
